Ukraine Seeks Election Format Amid War
- 26.12.2025, 20:19
Hybrid voting - online and offline - is being considered.
The head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, David Arahamiya, has proposed to consider the possibility of holding elections in Ukraine by hybrid voting - online and offline. He said this on December 26 at a meeting of the working group on the preparation of laws to organize and hold elections in Ukraine during the war, which was broadcast by the TV channel "Rada".
Arahamiya said that work is now underway on how to ensure that Ukrainians who are abroad can vote in elections.
"The choice of Ukrainians abroad. It is a very difficult topic, because there are various messages from European partners: some of them say that they can help us open additional polling stations, but some countries say that it is forbidden to do so - then the capacity of our foreign polling stations will be limited. Then we will have to decide whether to do it in a few days or to go back to hybrid voting with online mechanisms," Arahamiya said.
He pointed out that as a former IT guy, he never realized whether online voting was possible or not. However, he pointed out that lawmakers now hold online committee meetings and vote on them. "So I hope that your working group will seriously work out: whether it is really possible to do hybrid voting online and offline," Arahamiya said.
Also, special attention, in his opinion, should be paid to internally displaced persons. According to him, one of the problems is that the voter registry does not have accurate data on all IDPs. "A lot of IDPs are not registered because in this way they avoid appearing on the radar because of mobilization. How we will bring them to the polling stations - you and I do not understand yet," he pointed out.
Arahamiya emphasized that it is necessary to bring as many people as possible to vote, as low activity can undermine the legitimacy of the elections. "We need to focus on maximizing turnout. It seems to me that it can be by expanding the opportunities for voting: either adding a few days or adding the possibility of online voting," he added.