Sitcom star leads Ukraine elections
● Faces run-off with sitting leader mired in claims of corruption
A comedian with no political experience has emerged as the most popular candidate in Ukraine’s presidential election after the first round of voting.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who stars in a TV sitcom about a teacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral, led the field of 39 candidates with 30.4 per cent of the vote, according to an exit poll. Incumbent president Petro Poroshenko was in a distant second place, followed by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
A comedian with no political experience was the most popular candidate in Ukraine’s presidential election, an exit poll predicted.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who stars in a TV sitcom about a teacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral, led the field of 39 candidates with 30.4 per cent of the vote, according to an exit poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov public opinion organization.
He was expected to fall short of the absolute majority needed to win outright in the first round.
The poll said incumbent president Petro Poroshenko was in a distant second place, closely followed by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshdays enko. The election was shadowed by allegations of widespread vote buying.
Police said they had received more than 1,600 complaints of violations on voting day alone in addition to hundreds of earlier voting fraud claims, including bribery attempts and removing ballots from polling places.
The top two candidates will face off in presidential runoff on 21 April. Final results in yesterday’s first round were expected today.
“Zelenskiy has shown us on the screen what a real president should be like,” said voter Tatiana Zinchenko, 30. “He showed what the state leader should aspire for – fight corruption by deeds, not words, help the poor, control the oligarchs.”
Campaign issues in the country of 42 million included Ukraine’s endemic corruption, its struggling economy and a seemingly intractable conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has killed 13,000 people since 2014.
Concern about the election’s legitimacy spiked in recent
after hundreds of claims that supporters of Poroshenko and Tymoshenko had offered money in exchange for votes.
Like the popular character he plays, Zelenskiy, 41, made corruption a focus of his candidacy.
He proposed a lifetime ban on holding public office for anyone convicted of graft. He also called for direct negotiations with Russia on ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
“A new life, a normal life is starting,” Zelenskiy said after casting his ballot in Kiev. “A life
without corruption, without bribes.”
His lack of political experience helped his popularity with voters amid broad disillusionment with the country’s political elite.
“[We have] no trust in old politicians. They were at the helm and the situation in the country has only got worse – corruption runs amok and the war is continuing,” said businessman Valery Ostrozhsky, 66, another Zelenskiy voter.
Poroshenko, 53, a confectionary tycoon when he was elected five years ago, saw approval of his governing sink amid Ukraine’s economic woes and a sharp plunge in living standards. He campaigned on promises to defeat the rebels in the east and to wrest back control of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Speaking at a polling station yesterday, the president said he was confident about the ballot despite the bribery allegations. “I’m sure that the election was well organised,” Poroshenko said. “The expression of the will of the citizens will be protected.”
A military embezzlement scheme that allegedly involved top Poroshenko associates dogged Poroshenko ahead of the election.
Zelenskiy and Tymoshenko both attacked Poroshenko over the case, which prompted him to describe his rivals as puppets of a self-exiled billionaire businessman Igor Kolomoyskyi.
Just days before the election, the TV channel Kolomoyskyi owns aired a new season of the Servant of the People TV series in which Zelenskiy stars as Ukraine’s leader.