Kremlin war criminal Vladimir Putin said that since Zelensky’s 5-year term in office has ended and new elections are not being held, power in Ukraine should supposedly pass into the hands of parliament and its chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk.
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As evidence, he cited the disfigured content of one of the articles of the Ukrainian Constitution.
On May 28, the Freak from Russia, during a conversation with the media following a visit to Tashkent, said that, “according to a preliminary assessment,” the parliament and the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada remain the only legitimate authorities in Ukraine.
According to his version, the Constitution of Ukraine provides for the extension of powers, but only the Verkhovna Rada says nothing about extending the powers of the head of state.
Indeed, Ukraine’s martial law law states that presidential elections are not held during martial law. But that doesn’t mean that they [повноваження]
are prolonged. They [вибори] are not produced. Who said they should be extended? There is nothing about this in the Constitution.
But there is Article 111 of the Constitution, which states that in this case the powers of the Supreme Power, actually presidential, are transferred to the Speaker of Parliament. Moreover, under the conditions of the martial law law, the powers of parliament continue. This is a preliminary analysis. Strictly speaking, according to preliminary assessments, the only legitimate authorities remain the parliament and the speaker of the Rada,” Putin said.
This is not the first appeal by a war criminal on the legitimacy of the President of Ukraine. On May 24, at a press conference in Minsk, Putin said that the legitimacy of Vladimir Zelensky was over. Then he added that Russia did not refuse negotiations, however, according to him, before signing legally binding documents, Moscow needs to understand “with whom it can and should deal.”
Zelensky responded by calling Putin an illegitimate president of Russia and his statements boring.
All adequate people who know how to read the laws… will read and find a conclusion. Therefore, to be honest, this does not bother me,” Zelensky said.
Before the outbreak of a full-scale war, it was planned that elections in Ukraine would take place on March 31, 2024, but they were postponed due to martial law.
Background
According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the term of office of the president is limited to five years. Therefore, Zelensky’s powers should end on May 20, 2024. At the same time, Article 108 of the Constitution indicates that the president must fulfill his duties in electing a new head of state. The elections have now been postponed due to martial law. However, the Constitution in Article 19 prohibits the holding of any elections during martial law, as well as making changes to the Constitution.
Some politicians in the West, in particular Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham, believe that elections should have been held in Ukraine in 2024, despite the Russian invasion.
Zelensky responded in August 2023 that for elections it is necessary to quickly make changes to the legislation and have an additional 5 billion hryvnia. He also proposed sending observers to the front so that the military could vote and organize the electoral process abroad, where there are millions of Ukrainians who fled the country because of the war.
I’m not holding on to anything. I would like to hold elections, honestly. “I like to do this,” Zelensky said then.
In the West, Zelensky’s legitimacy is not in doubt.
For Germany, Zelensky remains a competent head of state, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock during a visit to Kyiv.
In Ukraine there are no complaints against Zelensky, but there are questions
The reaction of even the opposition in Ukraine is clear: Zelensky must continue to be president, and it is impossible to hold fair elections under martial law. First, the election debates will shake the country. Secondly, it is impossible to organize voting for the military, as well as to ensure the security of the entire country on election day against the backdrop of Russian shelling.
Key opposition speakers agree that the issue is not the personality of the head of state, but the stability of the institution: any doubts about the legality of Zelensky’s tenure in office in the context of a genocidal war for the independence of the state are criminal.
However, Zelensky’s team is reproached for not turning to the Constitutional Court in time to obtain legal confirmation of legitimacy. But it is precisely for such stories that this court operates.
In February, the media wrote that the Office of the President allegedly prepared an appeal with the following questions: does the Constitution allow elections under martial law and what will happen to the legitimacy of the president after May 20. As a result, such an appeal was not sent.
Justice Minister Denis Maluski, in an interview with the BBC in early May, said that such an appeal “would be a huge mistake,” saying that it would give rise to doubt, and in war conditions this is dangerous. The minister made it clear that the issue could be raised later.
Speaker of the Council Ruslan Stefanchuk advised that those who doubt the legitimacy should appeal to the Constitutional Court. In another interview, the speaker spoke more harshly: he called those who question Zelensky’s legitimacy “enemies of the state” and “political nits undermining Ukraine.”
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.