Party newspapers in mailboxes and a thousand from Zelensky. Are the authorities preparing for the elections?

Millions for Newspaper Printing and PR

“I request that the funds spent on the printing and distribution of these newspapers be redirected to assist the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I believe such methods of agitation during wartime are ineffective and inappropriate,” said acting head of the Lviv Regional Council, Yuriy Kholod, in response to outrage on social media.

This is all due to the “Servant of the People” newspapers that residents of Lviv noticed in their mailboxes in September and October.

Kholod, who incidentally represents the “servants” in the regional council, sent a letter to the party leader.

“No one asked us — this came as a surprise to me. I do not know the print run of the newspapers in the region and how much money is spent on this, but I consider it unwise,” Kholod stated in a comment to hromadske.

The wave of distributing party newspapers by the “servants” is also noticeable in Kyiv and other regions, according to the head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Oleksiy Koshyl. In his opinion, this indicates an activation of party headquarters, but does not necessarily mean preparation for elections.

“Throughout 2023 and at the beginning of 2024, we did not observe such active information campaigns, where party materials were dropped into mailboxes. However, this excessive enthusiasm for informational and propaganda campaigns against the backdrop of war is not the best form of activity for political parties today.”Oleksiy Koshyl, head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine

The head of the “Servant of the People” party, Yelena Shulyak, responded to hromadske, stating that the party newspaper has been continuously printed once a month for at least three years (with a break in 2022). She assures that agitation has not increased and accused those discussing it of “hype.”

“The newspaper is exclusively informational, not agitational. The print run is determined by regional cells. They order the necessary number of newspapers, which are then distributed. The initiative always comes from the bottom up,” says the head of the “Servant of the People” party, Yelena Shulyak.

However, it seems that everything works in the opposite direction. How can it be explained that the regional cells are “not aware” of this? The head of the regional cell of the “servants” and the head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, Maksym Kozytsky, insists that he has no connection to the distribution of newspapers in the region.

The printing of regional newspapers for the “Servant of the People” costs nearly 10 million hryvnias every three months. Overall, according to data from the “Chesno” movement, the party spent about 26 million hryvnias on newspapers and other materials, media PR, and various events in the second quarter of this year. At the same time, Shulyak assured that the party is actually economizing on funding for the agitation direction during the war.

Are Elections Being Discussed in the President's Office?

In the regional centers of the “servants,” there have been no meetings or other activities regarding elections. There were no concrete hints that the authorities are developing scenarios for holding elections during wartime, either during communication with representatives of the “Servant of the People” in parliament or with opposition members of parliament.

“To be frank, I see nothing but media discussions,” says member of parliament from “Holos,” Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

“There are discussions, but to say that the atmosphere in Bankova is completely absorbed by the electoral process would be untrue,” said our source in the President's Office.

Among those who are certainly trying to scale and model the upcoming electoral race are Oleksiy Kuleba, who with his eternally sad face sharpens the focus of the party's activists in the regions, and Viktor Mykyta, responsible for regional policy in the Office instead of Kuleba. At the same time, this does not prevent them from literally eating each other from morning till night in eternal intrigues.Source hromadske in the President's Office

“And David Arahamia is trying to find and — most importantly — preserve himself by sketching a strategy for changing the electoral system. It is obvious that the authorities would want to return the “majoritarian” system, as it is much easier to buy votes in majoritarian districts than to try to regain a mono-majority as a ‘servant.’ But, in the end, I note that there is currently no significant hysteria surrounding the elections,” adds the source from hromadske in the President's Office.

Earlier, the new deputy head of the President's Office, Viktor Mykyta, assured LB.ua that there are no discussions about the electoral process, and that information spread by certain individuals is not true.

“Complete fake, apart from casual ‘meetings over a cup of coffee,’ there is nothing,” said David Arahamia to hromadske. However, discussions about elections clearly attract participants in the political process. Because, according to our information, there is a revival and demand for the work of PR teams that previously dealt with elections.

On the other hand, holding elections during martial law is outright prohibited by law. Even if it were to be lifted, it would take at least six months to prepare the legislative framework for elections.

A year ago, a working group was even created in parliament to develop a law on the first post-war elections. However, there has been no significant progress on this issue so far. Only a draft bill stating that elections cannot be held in certain territories.

As a majority, we are definitely not “pushing” this issue. Because as soon as we start doing that, the opposition will immediately take it as a flag that we are allegedly preparing for elections. Although, from the perspective of international standards, electoral legislation should be formed at least six months before elections. We do not know when the war will end, but some preparatory work should be undertaken.Vitaliy Bezgin, one of the members of the working group, member of parliament from the “Servant of the People”

Yelena Shulyak added that discussions about elections during wartime only destabilize the situation in the country:

“The President and the ‘Servant of the People’ party have repeatedly noted that elections in conditions of full-scale war are impossible. Because there are a number of challenges — it is necessary to ensure the rights of servicemen to vote and be elected, organize elections abroad, and hold them in territories where combat operations of varying intensity are taking place.”

Is There a Societal Demand for Elections?

There are many signals that may indicate intensified preparations for the upcoming electoral campaign; however, they are not systematic, notes the head of the Committee of Voters, Oleksiy Koshyl.

Igor Grynyv, a former member of parliament and now head of the Institute for Strategic Research and Forecasting “Yanus,” sees no grounds to claim that the authorities are preparing for elections. As a political technologist, he worked with two presidents of Ukraine — Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko.

Neither the wave of information work nor a thousand from Zelensky leads him to such a conclusion.

“This does not remind me of pre-election steps, because I do not see any changes resulting from this. If we talk about newspapers, this is merely an imitation of vigorous activity by the headquarters. Politically, they are not preparing for elections but consolidating their own party activists or trying to prevent their destabilization,” says Grynyv.

I ask whether it was about pre-election consolidation when all regional councils were instructed to support the President's Plan for Victory at extraordinary sessions.

“This is directed from above, but almost every authority has acted this way. I am very ashamed of all previous cases,” the political technologist replies. “I remember when someone came out with some program, there had to be immediate ‘approval,’ particularly through the vertical of regional authorities. This is how it is structured; these are the rules of politics.”

In the decision of the authorities to hold or not hold elections, Grynyv says the key factor is societal demand.

“Today's authorities are ‘weather-sensitive’ — they are guided by the fact that in sociological surveys, people do not want elections. I conduct research approximately once a month: the number of people who want elections has not increased in