It’s election day in Ukraine but no voting is visible

Kyiv (CNN) — Elsewhere in the world, Ukraine votes today. In a year when billions of people will have the opportunity to vote, people here will be delivering their verdict on Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency.

Five years ago, this man, whose talents as an actor, comedian and producer made him a household name in Ukraine, became president. However, Russian troops are still inside the country and millions of Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, fighting on the front lines or living abroad, so no elections are in sight.

Some US Republicans have tried to use the upcoming end of Zelensky’s term, which occurs in May, as another reason to withhold military aid.

Zelensky himself said he was open to the idea, but in recent months he has made clear that it is not something he believes the country can or should do. Although Sunday is the day on which, according to the Constitution, Ukraine must vote, it does not allow it during wartime. The alternative would be to suspend martial law during the election period.

It’s cold, Friday afternoon, on Maidan Square in Kiev. The sky is cloudy and it is raining.

This large open space, through which one of the city’s main arteries runs, was the birthplace of what Ukrainians call the Revolution of Dignity, the uprising ten years ago that ousted the country’s pro-Putin leader, Viktor Yanukovych, and Ukraine’s attention had shifted towards Europe. And the United States.

21-year-old student Mykola Lyapin smokes a cigarette before the rain starts. If I had the chance, I would have voted for Zelensky five years ago and I will vote for him now. They are not afraid that when the time comes, the President will step forward.

Mykola Lyapin (left) and Katerina Bilokon. (Credit: CNN)

“Our people are free, and we showed it in 2014, when we were dissatisfied with President Yanukovych. We came here to the Maidan, some even lost their lives, but we got what we wanted. Protecting our position is our It’s in the genes. If people believe “It’s true that Zelensky has been running the country for a very long time, we will solve it, even if the war continues.”

Just up the hill, at a bookstore that sells Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks, among other books, psychologist Caterina Bilokon, 42, chats with a friend in the small café at the front of the shop. They voted for Zelensky in 2019 and are happy with his performance. He has been refused support in the elections because of the cost.

He says, “This would be damaging to the state budget; it would be better to redirect the funds to arming our military.” He added, “At the moment there is no one to replace Zelensky.”

“This is not the right time,” says Zelensky.

Opinion polls show there is little interest in voting among Ukrainians: only 15% of respondents to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology last February said the country should hold elections.

Last August, President Zelensky was asked about his position in an interview on Ukrainian television and that he was in favor of holding elections.

He said, “It has its own logic. If you protect democracy, you have to think about this defense, even in times of war. Elections are one of those defenses.” And at the same time, he acknowledged that a vote could distract from the main goal of defeating Russia.

For a leader vulnerable to accusations of clinging to power, and whose appeal in 2019 came from the promise of greater democratic openness and transparency, shutting down debate on the election is a risk. However, the President was less ambiguous in subsequent comments. “Now is not the right time to hold elections,” he said last November and his stance has not changed since then.

Oleksiy Koshel of the Ukrainian Voters’ Committee, a pressure group that defends democratic rights, sees a clear political calculation at work. In his opinion, at first Zelensky’s team wanted to hold elections because support for the president was very high. However, when his popularity ratings began to decline at the end of the year, the leaders cooled on the idea.

The past few months have been difficult for Ukraine on the battlefield. As the US Congress continues to waver on new military aid, some Republicans have brought the Ukraine elections into the debate. Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, accused Kiev of “threatening to cancel the elections…unless the United States spends more money.”

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, while a strong supporter of aid to Ukraine, also took an outspoken stance, declaring at a press conference in Kiev in 2023: “I want to see this country free and fair, even “That’s despite being attacked. The American people need to know that Ukraine is different. It has been a very corrupt country in the past.”

Zelensky has been in power for five years, but polls show there is little public interest in the election. (Credit: Valentin Ogirenko/Reuters)

Surprisingly, on his last visit to Ukraine in early March, Graham softened his stance substantially, saying he now shared the consensus position among Ukrainians.

He declared, “Everyone I spoke to told me that the war situation must improve before elections can be held. Being on the ground I understand this.”

Ruslan Stepanchuk, speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, elected with the support of Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” party, clarifies the government’s position. First and foremost, he told CNN, it will not be possible to ensure that everyone entitled to vote has the opportunity to do so. He pointed to the seven million people who are believed to have left Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began, and several million more who are internally displaced.

Perhaps, more vulnerable are those living in temporarily occupied territories in Ukraine. This is approximately 20% of the country that is under Russian control.

The impossibility of facilitating voting there is obvious, but the prospect of moving forward with a national vote regardless would also be deeply worrying for many. Although some Ukrainians may quietly suspect that those who stayed in the occupied territories did so because they were sympathetic to pro-Russians, the image that would be given would be one of abandonment, that Kiev willingly deprived those Whom he wants to liberate. Right to vote. , It is not hard to imagine how the Kremlin could take advantage of this.

Another group of people whose participation in elections will be a challenge are members of the armed forces, especially those in frontline combat positions.

Stefanchuk declared, “It would be unfair to deny the soldiers who defend our country’s freedom at the cost of their lives and health the right to vote in elections.”

Soldiers warn against ‘power vacuum’

CNN spoke by phone with more than a half-dozen military personnel, most of whom were fighting in the East, in some of the most active areas of the land war. Everyone thought it would be a bad idea to hold elections now, though not for fear of losing their rights or those of their fellow fighters.

Instead, it is the possibility of uncertainty that creates the greatest concern, at least among the military contacted by CNN. Although everyone acknowledged that the war could last for several years, which might mean that elections became inevitable, the current security situation makes this untenable.

Oleksandr Voitko. (Obtained by CNN)

“The army fears that someone will decide to hold elections for internal reasons or because of pressure from Western countries (…) The power vacuum during the transition period could pose a threat to the management and functioning of the army.” State “said Oleksandr Voitko, who works in a drone unit.

Another soldier serving in the 47th Brigade near Avdiivka, who preferred to remain anonymous, agreed.

“Electing a new leader of the country will weaken us for some time, that’s for sure. It will take time to shift positions and responsibilities and change people, because everyone will want to appoint their own leader. We don’t have that much It’s time. At that time, the situation could be very volatile,” the soldier told CNN.

Ultimately, however, Ukrainians will return to the polls. Zelensky’s numbers may be far from their peak, but he remains popular; 64% of Ukrainians say they trust him as a leader.

Nevertheless, voting rights activist Oleksiy Koshel believes that after two years of war, people are beginning to move beyond the natural tendency to trust those in power in times of crisis. They hope that military politicians, such as former Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhany, or lesser-known individuals, will achieve record results when elections are eventually held.

Realistically, it is also not difficult to find people in Kiev who believe that at some point the current political leaders should be held to account for the massive invasion. A young businessman with his wife and children, who had come to visit him briefly from Italy, where they had been watching the fighting, was sharply critical of the President.

He ignored warnings about Russia, said the person, who declined to be named.

The result, he said, was that his own children and their friends grew up speaking Italian or Czech because the war had sent them abroad in search of safety.

“These children should speak Ukrainian,” he says with a mixture of anger and sadness.

Maria Kostenko and Victoria Butenko contributed to this report