The Ukrainian government wants to deprive Ukrainians abroad of the right to vote

Information is being spread online claiming that the Ukrainian government has prepared a draft law that deprives Ukrainians living abroad of the right to vote in presidential elections. These posts include the alleged text of the draft law with amendments to the Electoral Code of Ukraine.

However, this is fake. Neither state resources nor reliable media have published this document. The text of the current Electoral Code of Ukraine is publicly available and contains no changes.

There are no draft laws with amendments to the Electoral Code on the websites of the Office of the President or the Verkhovna Rada. Reliable Ukrainian media have not reported on this document. Instead, it has only been spread by Russian and pro-Russian sources.

The document contains errors that indicate it is fake. Firstly, the post claims this is a draft amendment to the Electoral Code of Ukraine. However, the screenshot shows that the document was signed by the president on March 31. This would mean it is not a draft law but a full law that has already been reviewed and approved by MPs.

Secondly, real laws include an identifier number at the end so they can be found. The fake document does not contain this number.

In addition, it is unclear why the document is titled “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Improvement of Electoral Legislation”, while it only includes amendments to the Electoral Code of Ukraine. For the same reason, the sentence “Amend the following legislative acts of Ukraine” seems inappropriate, since it refers to a single code, not multiple acts.

Moreover, in the amendment to point 7 of article 7 of the Electoral Code, it is stated that Ukrainians abroad do not have the right to vote “in local elections and presidential elections”. However, the authors of the fake forgot to mention another type of election — parliamentary — in which, under current legislation, Ukrainians living abroad can also vote. If such a ban truly existed, it would apply to both parliamentary and presidential elections. At the same time, Ukrainians abroad are already can not to vote in local elections, so there would be no need to amend this provision in the Code.

It also seems strange that the removal of references to Ukrainian voters abroad and foreign polling stations was proposed in only six articles of the Electoral Code. Yet, the document still contains other articles that refer to them. For example, points 4 and 6 of article 8 list documents that allow Ukrainians abroad to receive a ballot. Also, point 5 of article 23 states that foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine, where polling stations are established, must inform Ukrainians of the time and place of voting. Therefore, if such changes had truly been adopted, there would be many more amendments.

Most importantly, the text of the current Electoral Code is publicly available, and it clearly states that Ukrainian citizens living abroad can vote in presidential elections. All of the above arguments indicate that the screenshot of the draft law is a forgery.