Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian with no political experience and who plays the country’s president on a TV show, won Ukraine’s presidential election in a landslide.
Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian with no political experience who plays the country’s president on a TV show, has won Ukraine’s presidential election in a landslide, according to a national exit poll. The poll showed Zelensky receiving 73% of the vote, sweeping away Ukraine’s incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko, who conceded defeat.
"I’m not yet officially the president, but as a citizen of Ukraine, I can say to all countries in the post-Soviet Union look at us. Anything is possible!" Zelensky’s win had seemed likely since the first round of voting three weeks ago, when he beat a field of 40 other candidates, winning almost double the number of votes that Poroshenko received. The landslide on Sunday was a resounding rejection of the incumbent president, a 53-year-old billionaire confectionary tycoon who came to power on the back of mass protests in 2014 that toppled Ukraine’s then-Russian-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Those voting for Zelensky said that their disappointment with Poroshenko was such that they were ready to take a risk. Instead, Zelensky largely campaigned as a version of his on-screen persona, and held stand-up comedy shows instead of political rallies. In his show, “Servant of the People,” he plays a schoolteacher who is catapulted into the presidency when his rant against corruption goes viral. Once president, he eschews the traditional perks of his office and battles oligarchs who normally direct politics in Ukraine.
Many now fear that Kolomoisky will follow Zelensky into power. A Kiev court this week ruled the nationalization of Privat Bank was unlawful, further fueling worries among Zelensky’s critics. "There is huge room for people to join his team with reform-minded orientation," said Leshchenko."I believe that he is a responsible, reliable person."
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