Ukrainians are set to elect their president among dozens of candidates as pundits expect a three-way race including a comedian who plays a fictional president on television.
Two political heavyweights, incumbent Petro Poroshenko and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, have faced formidable competition from dark horse candidate Volodymyr Zelensky, whom opinion polls have given the lead.
Zelensky, 41, has never held a political post. In the popular TV show Servant of the People, he plays a history teacher who gains notoriety with a viral video of him bad-mouthing the country’s leadership and then surprisingly is elected.
“Zelensky is supported by voters who are unsatisfied with President Poroshenko, who mistrust the traditional political leaders and who want cardinal changes in Ukraine’s system of governance,” Volodymyr Fesenko, director of the Penta Centre of Applied Political Studies, told dpa.