Ukrainian former front-runner Yulia Tymoschenko has slipped to third place as she continues to slide in the Ukrainian presidential election polls.
Comedy actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s lead in the polls is growing, according to the latest survey by U.S. pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, which was presented to the visitors of the Dragon Capital investment conference on Feb. 12 and made public by lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko, reported The Kyiv Post this morning.
According to the poll, Zelenskiy would now take 28 percent of the vote. Sitting President Petro Poroshenko has improved his position and is in second place with 18 percent. For long the frontrunner, Batkivshchyna leader and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has slid to third place, with 15 percent. The survey of 1,759 respondents was conducted by phone from Feb. 1-7 by Ukrainian research agency Info Sapiens for the Washington D.C.-based Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.
Tymoshenko is generally seen as a pro-Russia candidate which may be hurting her standing among the population as the conflict with Moscow in the Donbass region as well as the Kerch Strait continues to escalate. She also has a trust issue with voters where many see her as corrupt due to past scandals. However, The Kyiv Post reports her elderly base is a solid voting block and may show up to the polls in much larger numbers than younger generations.
Zelenskiy has captured the spirit of younger voters who see the current group of oligarchs and elites as corrupt.
Many analysts still see Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as coming out on top in the end due to his strong support for Ukraine’s further integration into the European Union. Ukraine’s visa-free regime with the EU was a big win for Poroshenko and is extremely popular with the Ukrainian population.
