Comic, Billionaire, Comeback Queen Vie in Ukraine Election
- First-round voting takes place Sunday before April 21 runoff
- Anger at corruption after 2014 revolution is shaping election
Voters at a polling station in Kiev, March 31.
Photographer: Taylor Weidman/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Ukrainians are choosing a leader from among almost 40 candidates in Sunday’s presidential election, though the contest is ending up as a three-horse race.
Five years after a violent revolution demanding political re-alignment with Europe and an end to post-communist corruption, voters aren’t happy. Anti-establishment fervor has made Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old TV comic with no political experience, the front-runner. That’s left the incumbent, billionaire confectionery magnate Petro Poroshenko, scrapping with ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for the second spot in a runoff in three weeks.