UKRAINE COMEDIAN LEADS POLLING

EARLY results in Ukraine’s presidential election showed a comedian with no political experience with a sizeable lead over 38 rivals but far from a first-round victory, while the incumbent president and a former prime minister were close contenders to advance to the run-off.

The strong showing of Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Sunday’s voting appeared to reflect Ukrainians’ desire for new blood in a political system awash in corruption and a new approach to trying to end the war with Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east that has wracked the country for nearly five years.

With 20 per cent of the polling station protocols counted, Zelenskiy had 30 per cent, while incumbent President Petro Poroshenko had about 17 per cent and Yulia Tymoshenko with 13 per cent, the elections commission said early on Monday.

The top two candidates will advance to a run-off on April 21.

Picture: AFP Ukrainian comic actor, showman and presidential frontrunner Volodymyr Zelenskiy played table tennis with a journalist ahead of the provisional results in Kiev.