Kiev, Ukraine – Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky and President Petro Poroshenko have moved to the second round of Ukraine‘s presidential elections, according to the exit polls.
About 30.4 percent of voters cast their ballots on Sunday in favour of the political novice Zelensky and only 17.8 percent supported Poroshenko, the surveys conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov Centre.
Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who has sought the presidency twice before, is disputing several exit polls that showed her obtain only 14.2 percent of the votes.
Whereas Poroshenko accepted the survey’s results, saying: “I critically and soberly understand the signal that society gave today to the acting authorities.”
According to Ukraine’s Central Election Commission, the voter turnout was 63.4 percent on Sunday. CEC is expected to announce its preliminary results overnight on Monday. The runoff will take place on April 21.
Zelensky, who is better known for playing a president in a TV sitcome, celebrated the outcome of the exit polls by saying: “This is just a first step towards a great victory.”
Zelensky’s foreign policy
Dmitro Razumkov, Zelensky’s political aide, told Al Jazeera after the candidate’s speech at his campaign headquarters that if he becomes Ukraine’s president on April 21, Zelensky will stand by the Minsk Agreement.
The accord that was forged by France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia [the countries involved in talks known as the Normandy Format] to secure truce in the country’s east between the Moscow-backed rebels and the Ukrainian army was a backbone to Ukraine’s security.
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Ukraine election – Comedian more popular than President Poroshenko (2:43) |
“All sanctions put in place by the European Union against Russia are linked to the Minsk Agreement. If we try to annul it, we might lose these sanctions. It can’t be,” said Razumkov.
“Zelensky’s proposal is to add the United Kingdom and the United States to the Normandy Format as the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum to apply a joint pressure on Russia like a laser beam.”
He also said that under Zelensky Ukraine would continue aspiring to join the European Union and NATO, but it would hold a referendum on the subject only when the chance of doing so is realistic.
“We will not be selling air. Even Germany’s Angela Merkel said that the prospect is far. It doesn’t mean that we will stop aspiring to join the EU, we must keep following the path and one day achieve it,” he said.
“The story is similar with the NATO. We need to modernise the army and at the moment Ukraine is not in a position to do so.”
“We will not be holding a referendum on these subjects 10-20 years ahead of time, but at a time when there is a realistic opportunity [to join the EU and NATO].”
Corruption, Russia, EU
Sunday’s vote was the war-torn country’s first time since the so-called Revolution of Dignity brought Poroshenko in power in 2014.
The 53-year-old incumbent, who was elected with almost 55 percent of votes in 2014, seems to have failed to rally his electorate despite his efforts to be seen as a passionate fighter for the country’s territorial unity as well as the champion of Ukraine’s dream of integration with the European Union and NATO.
Over the last five years, he has reinforced the Ukrainian army and ratified the Association Agreement with the European Union, the document that enabled Ukrainians to trade with and travel to Europe without restrictions.
The incumbent president also secured the independence of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church from its Russian counterpart. But he failed to rid the country of corruption or recover money stolen from Ukraine’s coffers before he came to power.
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| Boriak, 37, lamented the absence of candidates caring about female rights [Oksana Parafeniuk/Al Jazeera] |
At a polling station in central Kiev, Sviatoslav Yurash, a 23-year-old working for Zelensky’s election campaign team, told Al Jazeera he was backing the comic because “he will be pro-market, pro-Ukraine, pro-Europe, pro-NATO”.
Tetiana Boriak, 37, said she voted for Poroshenko because she believed he was the only candidate who would resist Russia.
“I do not think that other candidates will be able to negotiate with [Russia’s President Vladimir] Putin. Poroshenko is the only one who will resist the way I think is correct,” she told Al Jazeera.
The elections took place against a backdrop of war in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk region, with government forces fighting Russia-backed separatists that has killed more than 13,000 people.
The conflict followed Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 which in turn came after Ukraine overthrew Moscow-backed leader Viktor Yanukovich earlier that year.
Several millions of the approximately 35 million eligible voters were unable or unwilling to cast their ballots in the occupied territories.
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Poroshenko was elected with almost 55 percent of votes in 2014 [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters] |
Oleksandr Bondarenko, a 28-year-old software developer, said she had voted for Tymoshenko “because with her in the second round, we will have a better chance of defeating Poroshenko”.
“This vote is very important for us because President Poroshenko has to leave. A lot of issues came up with his policies, especially with corruption,” said Bondarenko.
Olena Peftiiva, 53, came to the polling station not only to cast her ballot but also to make sure that her deceased husband’s ballot is not used for rigging the elections.
“My husband has been dead for 10 years. But his election registration confirmation arrived at my address. This has not happened during previous polls. I came to the polling station to make sure that his ballot is destroyed,” she said.
Follow Al Jazeera’s Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter @tamila87v
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