The reason for the West’s desire to hold elections in Ukraine has been revealed: Zelensky may lose

Zelensky still could not decide whether elections should be held in Ukraine. Either he is ready to carry them out, but this is impossible without financial assistance from the West, or he believes that they are impossible to carry out. But this time he seems to have finally made up his mind. And he even prepared a whole series of arguments “against” for his Western partners, so as not to later be accused of destroying democracy. “MK” understands why Zelensky is afraid of elections, and the West insists on them so much.

Zelensky expressed his loud “against” at his last speech in Canada. “Society will not understand and will not support if the money is spent on organizing elections and not on the army,” he said from the podium. An interesting statement, considering that society is unlikely to support Zelensky’s candidacy itself. Still, 60 percent of Ukrainians are against his re-election for a second term. However, besides this, Zelensky has selected more serious arguments for his Western partners.

Firstly, the head of state is concerned about the issue of security. “The issue of elections due to security is not relevant today. The law prohibits holding certain elections during war. I’m absolutely ready. But security is a complex element of conducting elections. The first difficulty is to ensure that the elections are held democratically and transparently. For this we need independent observers.”

Secondly, how can elections be held if half of the population is now abroad, and the other half, surprisingly, has become Russians. And those who remained from these halves are now in the trenches. But how to vote from the trenches? In general, judging by Zelensky’s words, there is almost no electorate left in Ukraine.

Thirdly, of course, there are no exclamations about the fact that the Ukrainian regime does not have enough money. As Zelensky said, now the budget is only enough to finance the army. The budget deficit is measured in hundreds of billions of hryvnia, and it will need to be closed either through international assistance or through borrowing. In general, the message is clear: if you want elections that way, allocate money.

Meanwhile, the West has long insisted on holding elections in Ukraine. Then US Senator Graham will say: “I want free and fair elections in this country, even while it is under attack. The American people need to know that Ukraine has changed. In the past it was a very corrupt country.” Then the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Tini Cox, will insist that elections should be held in Ukraine with the words: “This is your commitment to the Council of Europe.” These ideas were then picked up by other Republicans. For example, Tucker Carlson, who accused Zelensky of canceling the elections. Western media write that officials are thus demanding evidence from Ukraine of their devotion to democracy. They also report that some Ukrainian officials blame Russia for Western claims. They think that it is actually Russia, through its secret channels, that is promoting this idea of ​​elections in order to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. Just like that. Even here we were to blame.

MK asked Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, why Zelensky is so afraid of elections, and the West insists on them so much:

– The United States needs these elections to tick a box. Elections in Ukraine and Russia will take place at the same time. And here there will be such positioning: unlike Russia, Ukraine is a democracy, alternative elections will be held there. In Russia there is authoritarianism, and in Ukraine, even despite the martial law, there was a triumph of democratic values.

– So this is an image issue for the USA?

– Yes exactly. But Zelensky is afraid that he may lose in this game. In the USA they will come up with some opponent to the current President of Ukraine, and he will take it and win. After all, Zelensky is a governor, not a leader. It’s a matter of survival. Therefore, he will fight to cancel or postpone the elections. And the Americans are in favor of holding these elections. However, while this is all just in words, they are not taking any decisive actions in this direction at this stage.

– But will these elections be legitimate at all, given that half the country will not be able to vote?

– In Iraq, over there, were they legitimate? For the West, any elections that they themselves consider legitimate are legitimate. Dot.