Regarding the relevance of banning regular parliamentary elections in Ukraine during martial law

The article is devoted to the controversial issue in Ukraine of the legislative ban on regular parliamentary elections during the period of the special legal regime of martial law. The content of this discussion is disclosed. In order to confirm or refute the hypothesis about the fallacy of the legislative ban on holding regular parliamentary elections in Ukraine under martial law, the international experience of the COVID-19 pandemic was studied. This is a new international experience for this discussion. It was found out that in the conditions of an emergency situation of threats to the lives of citizens during this global epidemic, the states did not prohibit the holding of elections, but on the contrary, held these elections or postponed the date of these elections, postponed the holding of these elections, etc. From which it was concluded that in international legal practice, the concept of banning elections and the concept of postponement of elections are not the same: a legislative ban on elections is a legislative ban on elections, and the postponement of the planned election date is not a legislative ban on elections. In view of this conclusion, clarification of the subject of this discussion is proposed. It is noted that this discussion is currently being conducted between whether or not the Constitution of Ukraine prohibits the holding of regular parliamentary elections under martial law. And from the point of view of the experience of the pandemic-2020, this discussion should be legally accurate between the banning of these elections and the postponement of these elections in the Constitution of Ukraine. The importance of this clarification for the resolution of this debate, as well as for the legislative provision of the future post-war parliamentary elections, is emphasized. A significant difference in the legislative support for these upcoming parliamentary elections was revealed, depending on whether the regular parliamentary elections were prohibited by the Constitution of Ukraine during martial law, or not prohibited, but postponed. Each of these options has been analyzed. It has been clarified that in the event of the postponement of the regular parliamentary elections during the period of martial law, the future first post-war parliamentary elections will be the same regular elections of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the tenth convocation, which should have been held on October 29, 2023. And in the case of a ban on holding these elections under during martial law, there is legal uncertainty regarding the type of these first parliamentary elections after martial law: they will be neither regular nor extraordinary, but they will be unknown. As a conclusion, the importance of continuing this debate around the newly refined dilemma between the banning of these elections and the postponement of these elections is stated. The importance of continuing to study relevant international experience is especially emphasized.