Comedian expected to top first round of Ukraine’s election
A comedian whose political experience is limited to playing the president on TV vowed to tackle Ukraine’s corruption, as he voted on Sunday in the first stage of a presidential election he is tipped to win.
Actor Volodymyr Zelensky’s bid began as a long shot but he has leapfrogged establishment politicians amid public anger over graft and stagnating living standards. “A new life is beginning, a good life, without corruption, without bribes,” the 41year-old told journalists as he voted at a Kiev polling station.
If elected, the entertainer will take the reins of a country fighting Russia-backed separatists in its east and struggling to recover from an economic crisis.
President Petro Poroshenko was vying with former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to face Zelensky in a run-off, according to final opinion polls. Barring a shock result in which one candidate crosses the 50% threshold in the first round, a run-off is to be held on April 21.
A recent survey put Poroshenko and Tymoshenko neck and neck at about 17%.
Zelensky, the star of a political comedy series called
had 25% support in final surveys.
In polling stations across Ukraine, voters expressed dissatisfaction with the candidates and many said they were opting for what they saw as the least of three evils.
“I’m voting for anyone apart from Poroshenko. I don’t believe him, he cheated us,” said a 40year-old woman called Olga.
In the eastern city of Mariupol, near the frontline of the separatist conflict that has cost 13,000 lives over five years, soldiers were among those casting their ballots.
The war is “the main question for everyone,” said 22-yearold soldier Sergiy, without specifying who he was voting for. “The country is tired of this situation, people are tired.”
Casting his vote in Kiev, Poroshenko said he regretted mud slinging during the campaign but praised the “well-prepared” and “secure” election.
Security services said armed special forces had been deployed across the country on polling day.
There are a record 39 candidates on the ballot paper, which is more than 80cm long, but only the three frontrunners have a realistic chance of progressing to a run-off vote. All three have said they will keep Ukraine on the European course it has charted since a 2014 revolution forced pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych from office.
The popular uprising was followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Poroshenko was elected after he pledged to tackle graft, align Ukraine with the West and end the separatist fighting. But the conflict is grinding on, corruption is rife and the country is struggling to recover from an economic crisis that began in 2014.
Zelensky, meanwhile, has been criticised for the vagueness of his manifesto, the key pledges of which were chosen following a public vote on social media. The entertainer has eschewed rallies and interviews in favour of playing gigs with his comedy troupe up to the final days of campaigning.