Korniienko responded on whether Ukrainians abroad can be stripped of the right to vote — some support this

Support for the idea of depriving Ukrainians who have left the country of voting rights could be even greater this year than last. Sociological polls last year already recorded support for this idea among Ukrainians who remained in the country. At the same time, implementing this idea would have serious consequences for relations with the Council of Europe and foreign partners.

This was stated in an interview with LB.ua by First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniienko. He said he had seen poll results on restricting the voting rights of citizens abroad and suggested that those figures could be higher now.

“Those were last year’s numbers. I suspect that if you conducted a poll now, support for this idea would be even greater,” Oleksandr Korniienko said.

Korniienko pointed out that Ukrainians distinguish well between active and passive suffrage, and called this distinction fundamental for the further discussion.

“Thank God, Ukrainians fairly clearly distinguish between active and passive suffrage. And if we restrict passive rights — that is, the right to run and be elected — we will have huge problems with foreign partners, with the Council of Europe, and so on. But if we also restricted active rights — the right to vote — we would be added to the cohort of non-democratic countries. Then the question would be how we differ from Russia,” Korniienko said.

Regarding limiting passive suffrage — that is, the right to run — Korniienko acknowledged that he does not have a formed position. He referred to a poll in Poland that found 51% of Ukrainians living there would return to Ukraine under certain circumstances.

“In my view, we need to wait for the end of the war and understand whether people will return,” Korniienko said.

The authorities continue to search for a formula for postwar elections

The question of elections during and after the war remains one of the most debated in the political space. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that holding elections in Ukraine during the war is impossible due to security risks and millions of citizens abroad and in occupied territories. According to him, usually about 500 thousand Ukrainians vote abroad, whereas now nine million people are outside the country.

The Ukrainian authorities insist that current legislation explicitly prohibits holding elections during the period of martial law. In addition to legal obstacles, the problem of destroyed electoral infrastructure and the voter registration system remains unresolved; it needs significant updating taking into account millions of internally displaced persons and refugees.

Earlier, Informator reported that elections will not take place in the fall — MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak explained that legitimate voting requires at least six months, and among the main obstacles are destroyed electoral infrastructure and the unresolved issue of internally displaced persons.

We also wrote that Korniienko himself previously allowed that elections could be held even before a peace treaty with Russia is signed, but only on the condition of a comprehensive ceasefire lasting at least 30–60 days.