People not ready to spend money on anything other than weapons – Zelenskyy on elections

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready for elections, but society would not support it if money is used for purposes other than weapons.

Source: Zelenskyy said this during a press conference in Canada

Details: Zelenskyy said that the biggest challenges for elections during the war are security issues regarding the presence of observers, voting by the military, residents of the temporarily occupied territories and Ukrainians abroad, and campaign financing.

Quote from Zelenskyy: "In Ukraine, which is absolutely fair, the society is responding harsh[ly] whenever the parliament or the government is willing to, you know, to allocate money to a certain direction which is different from weapons. I mean, the society is not ready to support that. And the society is, in fact, absolutely against that, because we are at war.

We haven’t raised the issue of elections because it’s not a topical issue considering the security aspects. You were right to mention that the law prohibits the elections at the time of the martial law period. I am ready. But the security is a very complicated aspect of running the elections. The first complexity is to have the elections in a democratic and transparent manner. For that, we need independent observers from different countries in the world.

How are they going to vote while in the trenches? How will they be able to visit the polling stations close to the frontline? So everything should be organised in bomb shelters. You know, we know Russia, because they will simply open fire at all the people who would be coming to the elections. And, I mean, will you be able to find the observers ready to go to the trenches and to make sure there is a transparent election?

The people who are protecting the rights and liberties of the citizens won’t have a chance to vote, that’s nonsense."

For reference: The next presidential and parliamentary elections were supposed to take place in 2024, but elections are not held during martial law.

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