On October 29, 2023, regular elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine were scheduled to take place. However, due to the full-scale war that Russia launched against our country on February 24, 2022, and in accordance with the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine, the parliamentary elections were not held. Nevertheless, this situation has sparked intense debates among politicians, journalists, and citizens of Ukraine, as well as beyond its borders.
The mere fact that the elections did not take place has not only failed to resolve the issue but has also added a significant number of additional problems and questions. Among them:
- Will the regular presidential elections also not be held in the last week of March 2024?
- Can a country still be considered democratic if it does not hold elections during wartime?
- Does the legitimacy of Ukraine’s government, which has not undergone scheduled re-elections even during wartime, remain intact, and does it not diminish?
- When should the elections that were not held due to the war be conducted?
- What changes need to be planned in accordance with the post-war realities?
Of course, there are many more questions, all of which are non-rhetorical, and most of them are capable of provoking significant political consequences for Ukrainian citizens and Ukraine itself. This underlines the necessity of holding a roundtable discussion to address these and related issues within a professional environment, taking into account the experiences of democratic countries in Europe and around the world.
The roundtable is organized within the framework of the “Erasmus+ Programme” in the “Jean Monnet for Higher Education” direction by the Department of Political Science (module “Political Institutions and Systems in Europe: Comparisons and Lessons for Ukraine” No. 101126702) with the support of the European Union.