The powers of Ukraine’s incumbent president, Volodymyr Zelensky, will expire under the Constitution on May 21 and there is no legitimate way of extension, a member of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Alexander Dubinsky has said.
“The powers of the President of Ukraine expire on the night of May 20-21, 2024 and cannot be extended, while those of the Verkhovna Rada can. After May 20, the Rada will be legitimate, but the president will be not,” Dubinsky added.
He argues that the only situation where the president can continue to fulfill his duties after the expiration of his term is the period until the president-elected takes office. But this requires that elections be held and a new president be elected. In the meantime, under martial law, which has once again been extended in Ukraine, it is impossible to hold elections.
Dubinsky is now in a pre-trial detention center. He is accused of state treason for involvement in a media campaign over controversial audio recordings of a conversation between Joe Biden, then US vice president, and Pyotr Poroshenko, then president of Ukraine, confirming Washington’s interference in the country’s internal affairs.
The issue of elections
Parliamentary elections were supposed to be conducted in Ukraine in October, but it became impossible to hold them because martial law was imposed and has been repeatedly extended since February 2022.
According to the Constitution, the presidential election in Ukraine should be held in March, and many analysts began to speculate about their possible abolition or ways of holding them under the current conditions.
However, Zelensky, in one of his video messages last November, demanded a halt to attempts to “throw [this issue] out into society” for discussion, saying that it was “the wrong moment” and the voting could only take place after the end of hostilities.
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