Voters in Ukraine went to the polls Sunday to narrow a field of 39 presidential candidates down to two.
If the preliminary results hold, Incumbent President Petro Poroshenko will face comedian and actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a runoff election in three weeks.
The 41-year-old challenger has no political experience but appealed to Ukrainians disillusioned by government corruption and poor living standards. Incumbent Poroshenko described the results at his election rally as sobering.
CGTN’s Stephanie Freid reports from Kiev.
Follow Stephanie Freid on Twitter @SFreid
To discuss all of this:
- Serhiy Kudelia is an associate professor of Political Science at Baylor University.
- Pavel Felgenhauer is a defense analyst and columnist for Novaya Gazeta.
- Yuval Weber is a global fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute and Associate Professor at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School.
- Marko Mihkelson is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian parliament.
Likely run-off between actor Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine's presidential election https://t.co/543zP6s3oG pic.twitter.com/BVSQyQNhlo
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) April 1, 2019
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A comedian with no political experience raced ahead in the first round of Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday https://t.co/qVOfyQHzB4 pic.twitter.com/jVbCFkF5B1
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 1, 2019