Extraordinary parliamentary elections in Ukraine during martial law

The article is devoted to the little-studied issue in Ukraine of the legislative ban on holding extraordinary, or early, elections of People’s Deputies of Ukraine during the period of the special legal regime of martial law. The subject of the research is such a type of early parliamentary elections as mid-term elections of a people’s deputy. The urgency of the researched issue is due to the ongoing martial law regime in Ukraine and the need to hold these elections. The complexity of the investigated issue is due to the legal ban on holding any elections in Ukraine during this martial law. A significant difference between ordinary and extraordinary parliamentary elections in the conditions of this martial law has been identified: the ban on holding ordinary parliamentary elections leaves the country with a valid parliament, and the ban on holding extraordinary parliamentary elections deprives the country of its current parliament. In order to investigate the legality of this ban on mid-term elections of people’s deputies, the following were analyzed: firstly, the publications of Ukrainian scientists regarding these mid-term elections of people’s deputies in the conditions of this martial law; secondly, the legislative justification of the body of state management of the election process in Ukraine regarding the non-appointment and non-holding of these interim parliamentary elections during martial law, using the example of the case of December 13, 2023. Among the main things, it was clarified: firstly, that this ban is not a norm of the Constitution of Ukraine neither for scientists nor for the state election management body; secondly, that this prohibition does not have sufficient legal force without a constitutional justification; thirdly, that this ban does not have an undeniable link of consistency with the Constitution of Ukraine: some claim that this ban corresponds to Article 64 of the Constitution of Ukraine, others claim that it does not correspond to it, but contradicts it. It is proposed to consider as an alternative to this ban on elections during this martial law the electoral qualification of martial law - a special and temporary restriction of the circle of voters for holding these by­elections in the conditions of this war. A specific version of this qualification is proposed - the qualification of a legal entity.