A comedian whose political experience is limited to playing the president in a TV show on Thursday led final polls as Ukraine prepared for the first round of a presidential election.
Actor Volodymyr Zelensky’s bid started as a long shot, but he has leapfrogged establishment politicians amid public frustration over corruption and stagnating living standards.
Several polls published ahead of tomorrow’s vote put the 41-year-old star of political comedy Servant of the People above 25 percent, though analysts say the race remains open.
Photo: Reuters
The TV show returned for its third season this week.
One survey put Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko neck-and-neck at about 17 percent, vying for the chance to meet Zelensky in a two-person runoff next month.
However, another poll showed Poroshenko, who has since 2014 led the nation of 45 million locked in a separatist conflict, pulling well ahead of his ally-turned-foe Tymoshenko — though still behind Zelensky.
Zelensky, who has a young support base, confesses he has “no experience,” but insists he has the strength to lead Ukraine.
“I don’t have all the knowledge, but I’m learning this now,” he said in an interview this month. “I don’t want to look like an idiot.”
Critics point to the vagueness of his manifesto, the key pledges of which were chosen following a public vote on social media, but supporters say only a new face can clean up Ukraine’s murky politics.
Some accuse Zelensky of acting as a front for the interests of oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, who owns the TV channel that broadcasts the entertainer’s shows, though Zelensky denies any political links.
Poroshenko was elected president five years ago after a popular uprising forced his predecessor Viktor Yanukovych from office.
The pro-Western revolution was followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and a conflict in the east of Ukraine between Kiev’s forces and Moscow-backed separatists.
Poroshenko came in on promises to tackle graft, align Ukraine with the West and shut down the fighting in the east.
He has brought in a raft of reforms to boost the economy and fight corruption, but they have yet to produce noticeable changes in living standards.
Meanwhile, the simmering separatist conflict has cost about 13,000 lives.
The 53-year-old leader has positioned himself as the only person able to stand up to the Kremlin and promised to return Crimea to Ukraine if he is re-elected.
The pledge has been widely dismissed as unrealistic.
Tymoshenko has focused on the cost of living. She has promised to cut consumer gas prices in half and boost pensions as she appeals to an older base during her third tilt at the presidency.
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