Ukrainian TV comic wins presidency in landslide, according to exit poll
Ukraine’s most-watched comedian won a landslide victory in Sunday’s presidential run-off, an exit poll showed, as voters vented their frustration at the ex-Soviet republic’s lack of progress since a revolution five years ago.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a 41year-old TV comic who’s tapped into fury at the political class, got 73 per cent of ballots compared with 25 per cent for incumbent Petro Poroshenko, according to the survey by three pollsters. His victory owes a lot to his newcomer status and comes despite a campaign that’s been heavy on style with only a sprinkling of policy proposals.
“People are disillusioned with the old elite, which hasn’t proved itself after the revolution,” Yuriy Yakymenko, an analyst at the Razumkov Centre for economic and political studies in Kyiv, said by phone.
“Zelenskiy positioned himself as a populist politician opposed to the old authorities. He and the people are on one side, and the old politicians on the other.”
Lying on a geopolitical fault line between Russia and the European Union, Ukraine has taken on a global significance since protesters kicked out Kremlinbacked Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 and Russia annexed Crimea. The West has provided billions of dollars in aid while President Vladimir Putin continues to meddle, aiming to eventually regain influence.
Behind the rise of Zelenskiy, who stars in a TV show about a fictional president, is the kind of anti-establishment zeal that’s engulfed the continent and other parts of the world.
He joins other comics-turned-politicians including Italy’ s Beppe Grillo and Slovenia’s Marjan Sarec.
Zelenskiy promised to crack down on corruption, continue working with the International Monetary Fund to remake the economy and help bring peace to eastern Ukraine, where a war with Russian-backed forces persists. But specifics have been hard to come by.