[wat10000]

Elections won't be canceled. They're too important for the perception of legitimacy. Virtually every country on Earth now has elections. Russia, China, even North Korea has elections.

The modern playbook isn't to abolish elections, it's a combination of blocking opposition candidates, suppressing votes, intimidating voters, and lying about the results. That's what to watch for.

[wrs]

“Watch for”? That has been actively happening, at an accelerating pace. (Especially if you count “lying about someone else lying about the results”.)

[wat10000]

Suppression and intimidation certainly have a long, proud history in this country, at least. I don't think "watch for" implies they're new.

[Drupon]

It's fairly easy to abuse a state of exception to cancel elections. Ukraine has done it, and it's been, along with banning opposition parties and attempting to imprison critics (Arestovych, etc.), a critical step in their government consolidating power.

[walletdrainer]

It’s absurd to claim that Ukraine (I’ll assume you actually mean “Ukrainian leadership”) is somehow “abusing” a constitutionally mandated state of emergency.

[Drupon]

>I’ll assume you actually mean “Ukrainian leadership”

What else could I possibly have meant, genius?

But yes of course they've taken advantage of it. Russia yeeting them out of its own territories and then invading The Ukraine is the best thing Zelensky could have asked for.

[walletdrainer]

How is that “abuse”?

[wat10000]

Ukraine's constitution doesn't allow elections when martial law is in effect. The US constitution has no such clause, nor anything else that would allow for delaying or canceling elections.

That's not to say it can't be done, but there's a huge difference in difficulty between doing what the country's constitution says, and doing the opposite. Especially in a country where elections are run by sovereign governments not under the control of the central government.

[bdangubic]

And how/who/where do we certify the election results “run by sovereign governments not under the control of the central government”?

[wat10000]

Depends on the government, but usually their Secretary of State does it.

[Drupon]

Oh that's good to know that it's fine because it's iN ThEIr CoNStItUTIoN

I guess everything in DPRK is fine because it's all legal their too

[wat10000]

My point is about difficulty, not how “fine” it is. It’s really easy not to hold elections when your constitution says you can’t. It’s a lot harder when your constitution says you must, and also gives you no power over the governments who actually hold those elections. But obviously you’d rather grind your axe against Ukraine than actually discuss what you said before.