omersukrugoksu/iStock(KIEV, Ukraine) — A comedian with no political experience, best known for playing a man who unexpectedly becomes president on TV, has taken a commanding lead in the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election, according to exit polls and early vote counts.
With more than 60 percent of votes counted on Monday, the actor and stand-up comedian Volodymr Zelenskiy had received about 30 percent of the vote, comfortably ahead of incumbent president Petro Poroshenko, at just over 16 percent. The closest challenger to either, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, trailed at 13 percent.
The early count closely tracked a major exit poll released after voting finished Sunday night.
No candidate was set to win more than 50 percent, and Ukraine’s election commission announced there would be a runoff, set for April 21, almost certainly a contest between Zelenskiy and Poroshenko.
Zelenskiy, who campaigned on a promise of change and tough anti-corruption measures, has ridden a wave of discontent with Ukraine’s political establishment, still viewed as deeply corrupt by voters five years after the country’s 2014 revolution.
His campaign has blurred the lines between reality and his fictional character in the television show, Servant of the People, in which he plays a schoolteacher suddenly catapulted to the presidency after a rant he makes against corrupt politicians goes viral.
He has run on the same message during the campaign, tapping into voters’ desire for a political shake-up, but he’s remained light on policy.
Poroshenko, a confectionary tycoon nicknamed “The Chocolate King,” faces a legitimate challenge in Zelenskiy. Poroshenko came to power on the back of the mass protests in 2014 and has led the country during its war in the east with separatist rebels directed by Russia.
He has had successes, including rebuilding Ukraine’s shambolic military and maintaining Western support in the face of the conflict with Russia, as well as keeping an International Monetary Fund bailout that’s supported the country’s battered economy. But Poroshenko has become deeply unpopular, viewed by many Ukrainians as having failed to tackle corruption or to overhaul a politics and a state bureaucracy that’s viewed as living at the expense of the people.
On Sunday, Poroshenko said he had taken note of the criticism implied in the vote, calling it a “severe lesson.”
“You see changes in the country, but want them to be quicker, deeper and of higher quality. I have understood the motives behind your protest,” Poroshenko told supporters in Kiev.
Poroshenko ran a campaign heavily focused on traditional, patriotic themes and the conflict with Russia, portraying the vote as a choice between him and Vladimir Putin.
Critics have expressed worries about Zelenskiy’s lack of experience and over his connection to Ihor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s most controversial oligarchs, who owns the television channel, 1+1, that broadcasts Zelesnkiy’s show.
Poroshenko on Sunday called Zelenskiy’s “Kolomoisky’s puppet,” and said an inexperienced new president would be a gift to Putin.
Zelenskiy has called for direct negotiations with Russia to try to end the war in the east, which has killed 13,000 people since 2014. Neither Poroshenko or Zelenskiy though are looking to turn Ukraine away from the pro-Western course it has taken since 2014 and back toward Russia’s orbit.
There were 39 registered candidates in Sunday’s election. Ukraine’s election commission said the vote had been free and fair, though it was marred by reports of violations.
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