Comedy candidate has last laugh in Ukraine
Comedian rival wins by landslide in Ukraine but faces daunting inbox of poverty and insurrection
A Ukrainian comedian who plays a president on television will take office for real after a landslide general election victory, exit polls suggest. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 41, was projected to have won 73 per cent of the vote, against 26 per cent for Petro Poroshenko, the 53-year-old incumbent elected after protests toppled a pro-russian leader in 2014. Mr Poroshenko congratulated his opponent shortly after the polls closed yesterday.
A COMEDIAN who plays a president in a television programme has turned art into real life by winning the Ukrainian election by a landslide, according to exit polls.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 41, was projected to win 73 per cent of the vote, according to exit polls, against 26 per cent for Petro Poroshenko, the 53-yearold incumbent elected in 2014.
Mr Poroshenko congratulated his opponent shortly after the polls closed.
The story is remarkably similar to the hit show Servant of the People, in which a teacher played by Mr Zelenskiy is elected president on the strength of a viral video rant.
A lack of reforms since the 2014 revolution has fuelled support for an outsider promising to fight corruption and leave after one term.
Mr Zelenskiy easily won the first round of voting, albeit without a majority. But his superficial campaign of comedy and social media videos has offered little insight into how he will achieve this with a parliament that is mostly allied with Mr Poroshenko.
“Thank you to all Ukrainians, wherever you are located. I promise I will never let you down,” Mr Zelenskiy told journalists and supporters. “To all citizens of post-soviet countries: Look at us. Everything is possible,” he added.
The candidate betrayed his inexperience when he posed with his filled-in ballot on Sunday, a violation of election laws that earned him a police citation.
Ukraine is now the poorest country in Europe, and its 42 million people stand at the forefront of tensions between Russia and the West, while fighting a low-level conflict with Moscow-backed separatists.
Mr Zelenskiy has said he would meet Vladimir Putin and involve the UK and US in talks to solve the conflict, but also promised not to lift the economic blockade on the separatist-held areas.
One Kremlin adviser said a plan reported last week in which it would give residents of these breakaway republics Russian passports was meant as a test for the incoming Ukrainian leader.
Before casting his ballot, Mr Poroshenko went to a service at St Michael’s monastery in Kiev, again highlighting one of his main successes as president, obtaining recognition for a new Ukrainian Orthodox church independent of Russia.
Yesterday’s vote ended a dirty campaign that culminated in a venomous debate at Kiev’s 70,000-seat Olympic stadium on Friday where both candidates accused the other of corruption.
Volodymyr Fesenko, an analyst, told The Daily Telegraph that Mr Poroshenko had not expected to win and was planning to take his revenge during parliamentary elections in October.