The Central Election Commission drew attention of electoral subjects in 10 oblasts, where the President imposed martial law, that the election process is prohibited according to the Law on Legal Regime under Martial Law.

The CEC took this resolution on 29 November meeting.

In particular, it concerns 45 first local elections and 7 additional and 9 by-elections in Vinnytsia, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv oblasts.

The Commission has decided that the appointment of local elections in these 10 oblasts will be considered by subjects of their appointment after the lifting of martial law.

Head of the CEC Tetiana Slipachuk said the journalists that Article 19 has a direct action and does not require any additional decisions.

“It is direct, and means a prohibition. The election is not canceled, it is prohibited due the direct Law requirement. As long as the martial law is imposed in 10 oblasts, it is prohibited to organize the election process there,” – she said.

Deputy Head of the CEC Yevhen Radchenko suggested on the meeting to pass a resolution, which would spread the prohibition to the whole territory of Ukraine besides these 10 oblasts. However, he didn't receive enough votes in support of the suggestion.

“The Law on Legal Regime under Martial Law, particularly Article 19(1), doesn't provide any territorial specifications on where such prohibition to hold elections should be applied or not. It concerns the whole territory, to my mind. Although I support decentralization and organization of local elections in UTCs, the law is the law. This is the only reason why I made such suggestion,” – he told in a comment to Civil Network OPORA.

Head of the CEC Tetiana Slipachuk has also mentioned that the law doesn't regulate organization of elections once the martial law is lifted. Therefore, the CEC is not discussing how it should be made, and whether it's possible to ask the Verkhovna Rada to urgently provide a legislative regulation for this matter.