Former Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s call for elections in Ukraine is making waves. In a video message to the Ukrainian people earlier this week he said a legal, safe and realistic mechanism must be found to allow elections to be held despite the ongoing war. Commentators debate the motives behind the popular politician’s move. Lack of oversight encourages corruptionJOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung weighs up the arguments, but points out: The war is indeed damaging Ukrainian democracy. … And the longer the war lasts, the more serious the damage becomes. Both the president and the members of parliament have already remained in office well beyond their normal terms of office. This lack of turnover weakens oversight of the government and encourages corruption, nepotism and the establishment of authoritarian structures – the very evils that the revolutions of 2004 and 2014 aimed to combat and which Volodymyr Zelenskyy also promised to tackle before his election seven years ago. It is no coincidence that the number of scandals involving his inner circle has steadily increased as the war has dragged on.” This initiative carries risks Fedorov does not question the legitimacy of existing structures under the current constitution, Slovakia’s Sme stresses: Rather, he argues that this model has had its day, or is running out of steam and must be revitalized by restoring trust and oversight processes, including (but not limited to) elections. At the same time, he acknowledges the extraordinary difficulty of this task. ... The state needs a mechanism to restore trust. However, this in no way allays fears that a genuine political struggle could lead to a collapse of authority, which would in all likelihood mean the collapse of the front.