Life imitates art as comic elected leader
KIEV: Ukraine entered uncharted political waters yesterday after exit polls showed a comedian with no political experience had easily won enough votes to become the next president of a country at war.
The apparent landslide victory of Volodymyr Zelenskiy (41) is a bitter blow for incumbent Petro Poroshenko, who tried to rally Ukrainians around the flag by casting himself as a bulwark against Russian aggression and a champion of Ukrainian identity.
Two national exit polls showed Zelenskiy had won 73% of the vote with Poroshenko winning just 25%.
Zelenskiy, who plays a fictitious president in a popular TV series, is now poised to take over the leadership of a country on the frontline of the West’s standoff with Russia following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and support for a proRussian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
Declaring victory at his campaign headquarters to emotional supporters, Zelenskiy promised he would not let the Ukrainian people down.
‘‘I’m not yet officially the president, but as a citizen of Ukraine, I can say to all countries in the postSoviet Union look at us. Anything is possible!’’
Zelenskiy, whose victory fits a pattern of antiestablishment figures unseating incumbents in Europe, has promised to end the war in the eastern Donbass region and to root out corruption amid widespread dismay over rising prices and sliding living standards.
But he has been coy about exactly how he plans to achieve all that and investors want reassurances that he will accelerate reforms needed to attract foreign investment and keep the country in an International Monetary Fund programme.