Volodymyr Zelenskiy is widely known in his home country as a comedian. He has no political experience but still, he is currently leading in the presidential election poll in Ukraine.
On television, Ukrainians see Zelenskiy playing the president in a comedy show. He is definitely a comedian but in the elections, it seems that he will have to live up to his TV role and for real this time as Ukraine's Central Election Commission revealed that he took 30 percent of the votes out of the already counted 50.4 percent of the ballots. His opponent, current leader, Petro Poroshenko only managed to secure 16 percent according to BBC News.
Apparently, Poroshenko is in second place in the poll while former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko placed third in the election with just 13 percent of votes in the partial counting. With the overwhelming result, it appears that the former PM has doubts on the results after she challenged the precision and accurateness of the recent exit poll. She disclosed that she might dispute the final results if the poll keeps up with the same number.
The election is expected to go into a run-off vote on April 21 with the top two candidates facing off, as no candidate is expected to win a majority.
"I would like to say 'thank you' to all the Ukrainians who did not vote just for fun," CNN quoted Zelenskiy as saying before his cheering crowd of supporters. "It is only the beginning, we will not relax."
It was reported that the winning president in Ukraine celebrated his victory in his usual way - in the same manner as when he was still campaigning for the highest post in his home country. This means to say that Zelenskiy's election night venue set up a bar that provided free alcoholic drinks, table tennis games, and table football.
Now, while former PM Tymoshenko is challenging the results and even said that she will also contest it after the polls, incumbent leader Poroshenko gave a more laid back reaction when he simply said that the poll results were a "severe lesson," especially for the younger voters who probably did not think much about the voting.
"You see changes in the country, but want them to be quicker, deeper and of higher quality. I have understood the motives behind your protest," he said in a statement.
