TV Comic Favorite to Supplant Ukrainian President in Runoff
- Election’s 1st round has Zelenskiy on 30.3%, Poroshenko 16%
- Graft, conflict with Russia, economy were main campaign themes
Volodymyr Zelenskiy plays table tennis with a journalist during his election night gathering in Kiev on March 31.
Photographer: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
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A TV comedian with no political experience took a big step toward defeating Ukraine’s incumbent leader at an election runoff this month.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old who’s tapped into anger at the ex-Soviet republic’s lack of progress since a pro-European revolution five years ago, won 30.3 percent of votes in the ballot’s first round on Sunday. Petro Poroshenko, bidding for a second five-year term in power, got 16 percent, with almost 90 percent of votes counted.