Volodymyr Zelenskiy has big lead over Petro Poroshenko after first round of voting

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Ukraine’s runoff election is likely to pit a comedian who plays the president on TV against the country’s actual president – and the comedian is the favourite to win.

Analysts expect a tough campaign that will see extra attention given to corruption scandals and ties to prominent oligarchs. And the country’s current president has called the possibility of his losing the “Russian scenario,” painting his opponent as the candidate preferred by Moscow.

With more than 90% of Sunday’s first-round results counted, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken a commanding lead, with 30.26% of the vote, ahead of Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent, who is on 15.99%.

Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, has 13.35% and appears unlikely to catch Poroshenko to secure a place in the runoff.

Zelenskiy’s dark horse candidacy has been the big surprise of this year’s elections. The 41-year-old has no political experience and has largely relied on a wave of anger with Poroshenko and government corruption to carry him to victory. On his television show, Servant of the People, he plays a high-school teacher who becomes president after his rant against corruption goes viral online.

Play Video 0:36 Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejoices at first exit poll victory in Ukraine's election – video

Polling shows that Ukrainians are fed up after years of stalling reforms, rising costs, and a war against Russia-backed separatists in the country’s south-east. They also want new faces – both Poroshenko and Tymoshenko have been in politics for years.

“This is only the first step toward a great victory,” Zelenskiy said after seeing the exit poll findings on Monday evening, which showed him with more than 30% of the vote.

A poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology shows that Zelenskiy would be supported in the second round by 43% of Tymoshenko voters and 52% of fourth-place Yuriy Boiko’s voters, indicating he is the clear favourite to win. Poroshenko would only be supported by 11% and 2% of those respective candidates’ voters, the poll said.

Zelenskiy has been vague about his policies if elected president. He has said broadly that he would support Ukraine’s integration with the west and would seek peace in the south-east through talks with Russia, a sentiment that is broadly popular but may not be realistic.

But he has avoided debates and held few interviews with journalists.

In brief remarks to the press on Sunday evening, he said he was ready to debate with Poroshenko during the next round and would soon announce a core team of five advisers. Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former finance minister who supports Zelenskiy, said he would also release a plan for his first 100 days in office.

As the results came in, both Poroshenko and Zelenskiy launched opening salvos in what will likely be a bitterly fought second round.

Play Video 3:02 Could this comedian be Ukraine's next president? – video explainer

“Fate has pitted me against Kolomoisky’s puppet,” declared Poroshenko in a reference to Ihor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch who has business dealings with Zelenskiy.

“I am going to destroy him,” Mikhail Fyodorov, Zelenskiy’s head of digital strategy, said of Poroshenko. The attacks would be “much harsher” in the second round, he said.

Poroshenko showed contrition after the election results were delivered, trying to appease voters who believe his administration has grown out of touch.

“I critically and soberly understand the signal that society gave today to the acting authorities,” he said. “It’s a tough lesson for me and my team. It’s a reason for serious work to correct mistakes made over the past years.”

The highly contested vote had been held amid concerns about tampering. Police said they had received more than 2,100 complaints of violations on polling day alone in addition to hundreds of earlier voting fraud claims, including bribery attempts and removing ballots from polling stations.

But there were encouraging notes in Sunday’s elections, including a broad rejection of far-right candidates and the rise of an outsider candidate in Zelenskiy, whose Jewish heritage has remained an afterthought during the campaign.

In the second round, greater attention will likely be placed on a corruption scandal involving military embezzlement linked to Poroshenko. Poroshenko has indicated he will attack Zelenskiy for the comedian’s business dealings with Kolomoisky.

Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian business oligarch, has publicly feuded with Poroshenko and been accused of financing his main rivals in the elections. The government nationalised PrivatBank, in which he owned a stake, in 2016.

But his 1+1 television station has served as the main platform for Zelenskiy to reach voters. Comedy shows with Zelenskiy and Servant of the People have been shown daily on the channel.

International observers on Monday noted the fractured media landscape and lack of debates in their criticism of Sunday’s election, but largely indicated they would view the vote as free and fair.

“I saw a free vote by free people,” said Michal Szczerba, head of the NATO PA delegation to Ukraine.