Ukrainian Presidential Candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Ukraine may get a new president soon. Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy is significantly outpolling current President Petro Poroshenko and in third place is perennial politician, Yulia Tymoshenko. The elections are to be held on March 31st of this year with a likely runoff scheduled for April 22nd.
Showman and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy continues to lead in the presidential race, followed by incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko, according to a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted from March 14 to March 22, writes The Kyiv Post.
According to the results of the survey conducted among Ukrainian citizens of 18 and older across the country, Zelenskiy is favored by 19.5 percent, Poroshenko – 10.3 percent and Tymoshenko – 7.6 percent.
Zelenskiy is known to millions as the guy who plays president on television. Zelenskiy became a TV star in Ukraine about 15 years ago. He has used his show“Evening Block” to mock politicians for many years. On a show called “Servant of the People,” Zelenskiy played a school teacher who becomes Ukraine’s president after his online tirade against corruption goes viral, writes GZeroMedia.
An admitted political neophyte, he is running on a platform of ‘common sense’ and says he will ‘sit down’ with Vladimir Putin to end the war with pro-Russian separatists in East Ukraine.
Some analysts see Zelenskiy as soft on Russia and in the pocket of exiled Ukrainian oligarch, Ihor Kolomoisky,
In any event, the next 30 days will be very interesting for Ukrainian politics. Many believe his poll numbers are inflated due to a young electoral base who will not actually turn out on Election Day. Time will tell who will be in the runoff in late April.
