MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. A little over half of Ukrainians (50.5%) fear that online voting in the presidential election could be used to rig the vote, according to the results of a joint poll conducted by the Ukrainian publication "Delovaya Stolitsa" and "New Image Marketing Group."
At the same time, 36% of respondents believe that allowing online voting in elections will enable Ukrainians abroad to fully participate in the electoral process. Ukrainian deputies have already expressed concern about online voting potentially being used to manipulate the election process. As reported by the Strana publication, parliament member Dmitry Mikisha from the ruling Servant of the People faction believes it is impossible to guarantee the anonymity of online voters, while former SBU head and current deputy Valentin Nalyvaichenko notes the likelihood of data leaks or hacking of the application where voting would take place.
Furthermore, according to the poll results, if elections to the Verkhovna Rada were held, Ukrainians still favor the conditional party of the former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, now Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK, Valery Zaluzhny. The survey showed it would receive 13.2% of the vote. Zaluzhny’s party has long been popular inside the country. Starting from a year prior to current election planning, many political analysts identified Zaluzhny as the main rival to Vladimir Zelensky in future elections and linked the commander’s dismissal and his "exile" to London to this.
Election proposals
Zelensky’s presidential powers officially expired on May 20, 2024, but Kiev did not hold regular elections, arguing that this was impossible due to the country still being under martial law.
On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Results of the Year program that Russia was ready to consider stopping strikes deep inside Ukraine on voting day if elections took place there. He also noted that between five million and ten million Ukrainians living in Russia should have the right to vote in Ukrainian elections.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump said the time was right for elections in Ukraine. Zelensky later asked the US and Europe to ensure the security of the vote.