INSTITUTE STAFF JOIN WORK ON ELECTION LEGISLATION UNDER MARTIAL LAW AND IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD

Scholars of the I. F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethno-National Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine have joined the Working Group tasked with preparing comprehensive legislative proposals on the specific features of organizing and conducting elections during a special period and/or in the post-war context. This expert group was established to develop key legal provisions aimed at ensuring the legitimacy and fairness of electoral processes under extraordinary conditions.

The Institute is represented in the Working Group by Halyna Ivanivna Zelenko, Deputy Director, Doctor of Political Science, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine; Viktor Oleksiiovych Kotyhorenko, Head of the Department of Ethnopolitics, Doctor of Political Science, Professor; Rostyslav Valeriiovych Balaban, Leading Research Fellow, PhD in Political Science; and Nataliia Viktorivna Kononenko, Leading Research Fellow, PhD in Political Science.

Researchers from the Institute are actively involved in work on critically important components of the future draft law, including election administration and the development of electoral infrastructure; the organization of voting for internally displaced persons, as well as in temporarily occupied and frontline territories; ensuring the electoral rights of Ukrainian citizens residing abroad; and fulfilling Ukraine’s international obligations in the field of elections.

Nataliia Viktorivna Kononenko has already prepared and submitted an official proposal to supplement the draft law “On the Specific Features of Ensuring the Organization and Conduct of Nationwide Elections after the Termination or Cancellation of Martial Law in Ukraine.” This initiative is aimed at protecting citizens’ direct electoral rights and предусматриває the mandatory publication on the official website of the Central Election Commission of information by candidates for the office of President of Ukraine and for the Verkhovna Rada regarding the time and purpose of their stay abroad during the period of martial law. The proposal prepared by the researcher is currently under discussion within the Working Group.