According to sources, a comedian with no political experience won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election defeating incumbent President Petro Poroshenko with 73.2 percent of the vote against 25.3, according to exit polls on Sunday, drawing congratulations from global leaders while dealing a stunning rebuke to his country’s political establishment.
Volodymyr Zelensky, whose only previous political role was playing the president in a TV show, trounced incumbent Petro Poroshenko by taking 73 percent of the vote, according to partial official results.
Mr Zelensky, 41, challenged incumbent president Petro Poroshenko who has admitted defeat.
The apparent result is being seen as a huge blow to Mr Poroshenko and a rejection of Ukraine’s establishment.
“I will never let you down,” Mr Zelensky told celebrating supporters on Sunday.
“I’m not yet officially the president,” he added. “But as a citizen of Ukraine I can say to all countries in the post-Soviet Union: Look at us. Anything is possible!”
Fiction turns real
Zelensky, the star of the Servant of the People television sitcom, where he fights corruption as a teacher-turned-president, benefited from the Ukrainians’ fatigue of mainstream politicians.
The majority of the population hold Poroshenko responsible for the government’s failure to tackle endemic corruption in the country.
“Low living standards and corruption are problems you will suffer from no matter where you live in Ukraine – Kherson, Lviv or Donetsk. People migrate to Poland in droves. Why does Poland live better than us?” Inna Bellenko told Al Jazeera in the capital, Kiev.
Olesia, the 34-year-old mother-of-three who didn’t want to give her surname, said she understood that Ukraine was taking “a big risk” by bringing an untested president in power.
“But we have no choice,” she said. “We have to either live in the past or try something new. He seems like a decent person. We trust him more. I would like all the people to live well, not only a small part [of the population].”
Tetyana Alekseieva, a 26-year-old who also voted for Zelensky, said: “I hope this change is for the good. Hopefully, the war will end.”
“We don’t know whether Zelensky will be better than the previous presidents, but I prefer to give someone new a chance,” she said. “We need to stop corruption which is everywhere now. I hope this president will help.”
Yuriy Kulinich, 40, who voted for Poroshenko, said he feared the uncertainty.
“Zelensky has not provided us with his action plan and it is very unclear what will he do. There is a particular fear that Ukraine can roll back to the [Viktor] Yanukovich times of pre-Maidan Ukraine,” he said, referring to the Russian-backed president of Ukraine overthrown in the pro-West uprising in 2014.
“There will be a revenge of [Yanukovich’s] Party of Regions members – pro-Russian forces – and it is causing tension. This is the worst case [scenario]. In the best case, we will just stall and again we will just lose this time. There is no time left though.”
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from Rava http://bit.ly/2IvHYod
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