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Comic likely to top first round as Ukraine chooses president
KIEV, March 31, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A comedian whose political experience is
limited to playing the president on TV vowed to tackle Ukraine’s corruption,
as he voted Sunday in the first stage of a presidential election he is tipped
to win.
Actor Volodymyr Zelensky’s bid began as a long shot but he has leapfrogged
establishment politicians amid public anger over graft and stagnating living
standards.
“A new life is beginning, a good life, without corruption, without bribes,”
the 41-year-old told journalists as he voted with his wife at a Kiev polling
station.
If elected, the entertainer will take the reins of a country fighting
Russia-backed separatists in its east and struggling to recover from an
economic crisis.
Incumbent Petro Poroshenko was vying with ex-prime minister Yulia
Tymoshenko to face Zelensky in a run-off next month, according to final
opinion polls. A recent survey put them neck and neck at around 17 percent,
though 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.
Zelensky, the 41-year-old star of a political comedy series called “Servant
of the People” that returned for its third season this week, had more than 25
percent support in final surveys.
In polling stations across Ukraine, voters expressed dissatisfaction with
the candidates and many told AFP 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 central Kiev.
In the eastern city of Mariupol, near the frontline of the separatist
conflict that has cost 13,000 lives over five years, soldiers were among
those casting their ballots.
The war is “the main question for everyone,” said 22-year-old soldier
Sergiy, without specifying who he was voting for. “The country is tired of
this situation, people are tired.”
Casting his vote in central Kiev, Poroshenko said he regretted mud slinging
during the campaign but praised the “well prepared” and “secure” election.
Security services said armed special forces had been deployed in towns and
cities across the country on polling day.
– Social media manifesto –
There are a record 39 candidates on the ballot paper — which is more than
80 cm long — but only the three frontrunners have a realistic chance of
progressing to a run-off vote.
All three have said they will keep Ukraine on the European course it has
charted since a 2014 revolution forced pro-Russian president Viktor
Yanukovych from office.
The popular uprising was followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the
conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko was elected after he pledged to tackle graft, align Ukraine with
the West and end the separatist fighting.
But the conflict is grinding on, corruption is rife and the country is
struggling to recover from an economic crisis that began in 2014.
Zelensky, meanwhile, has been criticised 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 favour of playing
gigs with his comedy troupe up to the final days of campaigning.
But supporters say 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.
– ‘Chance for change’ –
Tymoshenko — who came to international prominence during the 2004 Orange
Revolution and is a divisive figure in Ukraine — 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 bid for the presidency.
“Today we have a chance to change everything,” Tymoshenko said as she cast
her vote in the capital
Exit polls are expected when polling stations close at 8 pm local time
(1700 GMT). First preliminary results are expected several hours later.
Barring a shock result in which one candidate crosses the 50 percent
threshold in the first round, a run-off is to be held on April 21.
BSS/AFP/RY/20:18 hrs