Serhiy Dubovyk, Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC), speaking at the civil network OPORA forum 'The Legitimacy of Post-War Elections Begins with the Voter Register', discussed the potential integration of certain services of the State Voter Register with the Diia digital platform. According to him, such a mechanism will allow citizens to use electoral services through the familiar mobile application without directly accessing the register. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine, which is the information partner of the event.
Integration modeled after the Pension Fund
The CEC explained that the proposed mechanism will operate similarly to how the services of the Pension Fund of Ukraine are available through Diia. In this case, the portal acts as an intermediary between the citizen and the state institution rather than replacing its information system. Dubovyk emphasized that this concerns simplifying access to specific register services rather than transferring the entire functionality of the electoral infrastructure to the digital platform.
Smartphone voting is not planned
The CEC Deputy Chairman specifically stressed that holding elections via smartphone is out of the question. The potential integration solely involves simplifying access to certain services of the State Voter Register. Earlier, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Valeria Koval explained that there is no legislative framework for holding elections through Diia, and fundamental issues regarding compliance with the constitutional principle of a secret ballot also arise. Thus, both sides—the CEC and the Ministry of Digital Transformation—agree that a digital voting format is not in the plans.
Dispute over cooperation format: transfer or integration
The CEC stated that there are no plans to transfer the State Voter Register to the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The commission insists on establishing interaction between information systems. Dubovyk noted that similar ideas were discussed even before the full-scale war, but disagreements over the cooperation format arose at the time: the Ministry of Digital Transformation raised the issue of transferring the register, whereas the CEC considered such an option unacceptable and proposed service integration instead. According to Dubovyk, this issue remains relevant and requires further discussion between the agencies.
Context: Discussion on digital elections has been ongoing for years
Discussions regarding the possibility of holding elections via Diia have been ongoing for a long time. The Ministry of Digital Transformation previously stated that it has no plans to introduce such a voting format. Nevertheless, the issue of digitalizing electoral procedures remains on the agenda: integrating certain register services with Diia could simplify the use of State Voter Register services for citizens and make them more accessible through a single digital platform. For the CEC, this is also a matter of the legitimacy of post-war elections, as stated in the title of the OPORA forum, 'Legitimacy begins with the voter register'.
