Post-war elections will cost $140 million to hold
REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
It will take roughly UAH6 billion ($140 million) to pay for national
elections in Ukraine, with roughly 90 percent of that sum going toward
salaries for election officials, Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Oleksandr
Korniyenko said on Feb. 5.
“We don’t need complex calculations,” Korniyenko told Azerbaijani outlet Report.
“Since the last parliamentary vote in 2019, the minimum and median wages have risen by several thousand hryvnias, and some indicators have doubled. If elections previously cost UAH2.5–3 billion [$58 million to $70 million], simply doubling that figure brings us to 6 billion [$140 million].”
He added that additional expenses will include compensation for election officials working abroad, given the large number of overseas polling stations required to reach Ukrainian refugees scattered around the world. Ukraine’s international partners have agreed to help finance the vote, Korniyenko said. The Central Electoral Commission is handling the technical arrangements.
Preparations for the vote are already under way. On Dec. 18, 2025, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was ready to hold the election at the request of the United States. Five days later, Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk approved a working group chaired by Korniyenko. Soon after, ruling Servant of the People party chair David Arakhamia announced that the Central Electoral Commission started updating voter rolls.
On Jan. 7, 2026, Zelenskyy said drafting legislative changes
on elections and referendums could begin in February, pending necessary progress
on implementing the U.S.-backed peace plan to ensure security during the
campaign and voting period.
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