Volodymyr Zelensky is up for reelection in March after serving his first five-year term as President of Ukraine. Or at least he was supposed to be. But now that process has apparently been put on hold by… Volodymyr Zelensky. Without going through any sort of legislative process or judicial approach, the former comedian simply announced this week that “it is not the right time” to hold an election in the middle of a war. So when does he expect the “right time” to be? We don’t know because he’s not saying. So his people will need to cool their heels for a while and stop asking impertinent questions while the boss continues to travel the globe looking for more money and weapons to continue fighting the Russians “for as long as it takes.” (Associated Press)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy late Monday ruled out holding a presidential vote in the spring and urged his countrymen to avoid political divides, saying they must concentrate all resources on fighting Russia.

Zelenskyy’s comments in a video address follow increasing discussions about the possibility of a presidential election in March. Zelenskyy, who was elected for a five-year term in March 2019, had previously avoided definitive statements on the question. His associates had said he was pondering various possibilities.

“Now, in wartime, when there are so many challenges, it is absolutely irresponsible to throw the topic of elections into society in a lighthearted and playful way,” Zelenskyy said, adding that ”the waves of any politically divisive things must stop.”

The one thing Zelensky has going for him is the fact that Ukraine has legislation in place that bans elections during a time of martial law. Zelensky declared martial law when Russia invaded and that has still not been lifted. But the legislature could change that law, particularly if Zelensky publicly supported the change. Alternately, he could simply lift martial law temporarily while the elections are held.

It’s not that I can’t understand the point Zelensky is trying to make, or at least to a certain extent. Ukraine is a complete mess at the moment. Much of its infrastructure has been destroyed by Russian shelling and the power is spotty in many places. I don’t know if anyone has even checked to see how many of their voting machines have been destroyed in the war, but some Russian saboteurs were attacking the machines in September. So you can see how it might be tough to pull off an election with everything that’s going on over there.

But with that said, democracy is hard sometimes. Solutions can always be found. America was at war pretty much continuously from 2001 until last year and we managed to pull off all of our elections. Granted, we weren’t fighting in our own country, but the principle remains the same. If the will existed to hold the election, it could be made to happen. I’m sure he could convince someone in the White House to simply print paper ballots and go distribute them around the country.

Does the will exist, though? We keep being assured that we have to continue funding the war in Ukraine because we’re “fighting for democracy.” And yet, Zelensky’s government doesn’t always look all that democratic. There are still significant corruption problems inside of Ukraine’s government. The President fired his entire defense cabinet in September. That wasn’t the first time he’s done such a thing, either. He fired the entire cabinet back in 2020. And recently, an aide to his top defense chief was blown up when he received a box of grenades for his birthday. (They’re saying that turned out to be an accident, but it was still tragic and weird.)

The point is that the Ukrainian government still has a lot of problems and Zelensky hasn’t always exactly been acting like the beacon of democracy everyone has been told about. Does he still support elections now that he’s won? He’s talking about a time of war not being the right time for elections. But this war could drag on for a very long time given how things are currently going. Does Volodymyr Zelensky picture himself remaining in power unchallenged until this is eventually over? Time will tell, but it certainly seems like it at the moment.