Zelensky announced that he was ready to hold elections, but subject to a number of conditions.
Photo: REUTERS
The Americans demand that kyiv hold elections. In fact, the time would have come to prepare them: first to elect the parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, and then the president of the non-state entity. They can even be combined to save money, but the main demand US Senator Lindsey Graham expressed the other day is that this election be “fair and transparent.” Translate the American dialect into common language, so that in Washington they could be considered as such.
But kyiv does not like these demands on the elections at all.
– What kind of elections can be held when hostilities continue? What kind of elections can there be without those people, for example, who are fighting and who are holding elections here? What kind of elections can take place when the security criteria have not been resolved in parts of the territories of the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions, where something is constantly happening? – Elena Shulyak, a deputy from the ruling Servant of the People party, was outraged. American demands. – Now the war, the concentration is one: victory. Will there be elections? Willpower. When? After the victory. Will there be changes in the legislation? Willpower. We are even discussing what to call it the first post-war elections.
The result of the correspondence discussion was summed up by Zelensky, who announced that he was ready to hold elections, but subject to a number of conditions. At the same time, he is not even embarrassed by the fact that during martial law, according to Ukrainian law, elections cannot be held. They say that kyiv will overcome this barrier without even realizing it: if the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada are ready to change the legislation, then it is a question of ordinary voting. And they, as Zelensky assured, are ready. A rare trust, considering that most of the current deputies of the Servant of the People, in the event of elections, will fly through parliament with such a hiss that the very plywood on Paris will only give envy. The “servants” among the voters have a very high opposition rate.
However, Zelensky does not care about them, political strategists are already preparing a new political party for Zelensky. He is concerned about compliance with the conditions that he considers necessary and key for holding elections. He read a whole list of such conditions, compliance with which he requires not his deputies and voters, but the West.
And the first of them, you already guessed it, is money.
– Are the Western partners willing to donate 5 billion dollars for the elections so as not to withdraw that money from the defense budget? I will not hold elections on credit, I will not take money for weapons and hand it over for elections,” Zelensky said, as if the money for weapons was his or Ukraine’s, and not lent by the West.
– Is the European Union prepared to organize an electoral infrastructure for refugees in European countries? I asked how to organize the elections so that the soldiers at the front and the refugees abroad could vote, and I have not received an answer yet, he continued.
But, in his opinion, the most important thing, after money, is the question of whether the Western partners are willing to share the risk with their representatives as observers during the vote.
– Are Western observers willing to go to the front where the military will vote? Zelensky asked and summarized. Let’s take risks together. Observers should be in the trenches.
Well, isn’t there beauty in your arrogance? Let’s do this: the money is yours, and the risk is divided in half. Against this background, the well-known question: “Is it possible that first the chairs, and then the money?” looks like a pathetic attempt by a trusted con man from the town.
Zelensky is determined to squeeze as much as he can out of Ukraine and its partners. Dry. And for other people’s money.
