Ukrainians headed to the polls on Sunday, with politically inexperienced 41-year-old comedian Volodymyr Zelensky set to win the leadership of a country locked in a war with Moscow-backed separatists.
The latest opinion polls show his incumbent rival and confectionary mogul Petro Poroshenko heading for a brutal defeat in the second-round runoff. A survey by the Rating pollster shows Zelensky winning 73% of the vote against 27% for Poroshenko.
Polls opened at 8 a.m., with exit poll results expected at 8 p.m. and the first preliminary results several hours later.
Zelensky's rise to political prominence has been extraordinary, and his win would be considered the beginning of a new chapter in the country's turbulent history.
Many dismissed his initial decision to run for the presidency as a joke, but three months later he won the first round of the election on March 31 with 30% of the vote, receiving nearly twice as many votes as Poroshenko.
Two weeks later, in what was deemed as his first foray into big-league European politics, the political neophyte held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace. After the meeting the comedian – whose political experience is limited to playing a president on TV – said the French leader was one of the rare politicians with a sense of humor.
"And now he is not alone," Zelensky added.
Opinion polls suggest Zelensky is set to win the election hands down, becoming post-Soviet Ukraine's sixth leader.
The star of the "Servant of the People" television series has capitalized on Ukrainians' despair over mainstream politics, war with Kremlin-backed rebels, poverty and corruption. Supporters say Zelensky has the ability to clean up Ukrainian politics, comparing his rise to a peaceful anti-establishment revolution, the country's third after the 2004 and 2014 uprisings.
His brand of outsider politics and unorthodox style earned him comparisons to Italy's comedian turned politician Beppe Grillo and U.S. President Donald Trump. However, many say Zelensky's charm offensive is more style than substance and his incumbent rival calls him a "pig in a poke."
Critics say his political program is vague at best and that a country at war should not be taking a chance on a political novice. Many point to Zelensky's ties to controversial oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, one of the richest people in Ukraine.
Zelensky has shunned campaign rallies in favor of comedy gigs. He prefers to get his message across through slick videos on social media including Instagram where he has 3.7 million followers.
He has also said he wants Washington and London to join the Minsk peace talks to end the war with the separatists and to continue cooperation with the IMF.
The father-of-two from the industrial city of Krivy Rig in central Ukraine is a dollar millionaire. He has a law degree but made his career in entertainment.
Although Zelensky is of Jewish descent, he has said that religion is a personal matter and plays no part in his campaign. If elected though, he would become the country's first Jewish president and could serve as a potential unifying figure in a place where anti-Semitic incidents have been said to be on the rise.
Poroshenko won a decisive victory in a presidential election in 2014 after a pro-Western uprising ousted his Kremlin-backed predecessor Viktor Yanukovych.
The businessman, who amassed a vast fortune in chocolate, made closer ties with the West and cutting ties with the country's Soviet past the central mission of his term.
Poroshenko's backers credit him with rebuilding the nation's army, securing an Orthodox Church independent of Russia and winning visa-free travel to Europe.
He has positioned himself as the only politician able to take on Russian President Vladimir Putin amid a five-year conflict with Kremlin-backed insurgents that has claimed around 13,000 lives.
However, critics say the 53-year-old has done too little to tackle graft, improve living standards or uphold the rule of law.
After the first round of the election, Poroshenko struck a contrite note, saying he needed more time to turn the country around.
The father-of-four was born in the southwestern town of Bolgrad and studied economics. He entered politics as a lawmaker in 1998 and was one of the founders of Yanukovych's Regions Party in 2000. He then changed sides after the 2004 election widely seen as rigged by Yanukovych.
An investigative report last year said Poroshenko and his family enjoyed a $500,000 holiday on a private island in the Maldives, a revelation that prompted public indignation.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.
