A comedian whose political experience is limited to playing the president on TV was likely to top the first round as Ukrainians voted for a president yesterday amid frustrations over living standards and corruption.
Actor Volodymyr Zelensky’s bid started as a long shot, but he has leapfrogged establishment politicians in the nation of 45 million that is fighting a Russia-backed separatist conflict in its east.
The 41-year-old star of the political comedy Servant of the People, which last week returned for its third season, had more than 25 percent support in final surveys, well ahead of his nearest rivals.
Photo: Reuters
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was vying with former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to face Zelensky in a run-off this month, according to polls.
A recent survey put them neck and neck at about 17 percent, although another showed Poroshenko — who amassed a vast fortune in the chocolate business before being elected leader in 2014 — pulling ahead of ally-turned-foe Tymoshenko to make the second round.
In polling stations across Ukraine, voters expressed dissatisfaction with the candidates and many told reporters that 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 40-year-old housewife Olga, who had come to a polling station in the western city of Lviv with her young daughter.
“I’m just going to go into the booth and decide who to vote for. I just don’t know. Definitely not for Zelensky,” said Irina, a 35-year-old manicurist in the capital, Kiev.
There were a record 39 candidates on the ballot paper, but only the three frontrunners had a realistic chance of progressing to a run-off vote.
All three have said they would keep Ukraine on the European course it has charted since a 2014 revolution that forced pro-Russian then-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych from office.
Poroshenko was elected on promises to tackle graft, align Ukraine with the West and shut down the separatist fighting.
However, the conflict is grinding on, corruption is rife and the country is struggling to recover from an economic crisis that began in 2014.
The 53-year-old president has positioned himself as the only person able to stand up to the Kremlin and has promised to return Crimea to Ukraine if he is re-elected.
The pledge has been widely dismissed as unrealistic.
Zelensky, meanwhile, has been criticized 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 favor of playing gigs with his comedy troupe up to the final days of campaigning.
However, supporters said only a brand-new face can clean up the murky politics of one of the poorest nations in Europe.
Some accuse Zelensky of acting as a front for the interests of oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, who owns the channel that broadcasts the entertainer’s shows, but he denies any political links.
Tymoshenko — who was once known for her traditional plaited hairstyle, but now opts for a more conventional pony tail — has focused on the cost of living.
She has promised to cut consumer gas prices in half and boost pensions as she appealed to an older base during her third bid for the presidency.
“Today we have a chance to change everything,” Tymoshenko said as she cast her vote in Kiev.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS