Ukraine Election Polls: Comedian Leads Presidential Votes

In Ukraine’s presidential election, exit polls confirmed that comedian Volodymyr Zelensky with no political experience has become the potential winner by earning the maximum number of popular votes.

Zelensky gained 30.4 percent of the vote followed by incumbent president Poroshenko at 17.8 percent. The comedian surged ahead of all the other 38 candidates

Ukraine is a former Soviet state, with pro-European Union stand and many ongoing economic partnerships with the EU including the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement.

Zelensky has been playing an accidental president's role on TV. By becoming Number one in the exit polls, he will now be pitted in the final runoff against the current President on April 21 and the result is a foregone conclusion. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been warning of a rigged poll, was pushed to the third with 14.2 percent.

Only the top two candidates will make it to the April 21 runoff.

Pro-EU views and unconventional campaign style

Zelensky is pro-EU in his views just as president Poroshenko. The Ukrainian political system is considered semi-presidential with president vested with significant powers in areas of security, foreign policy, and defense.

In campaigning, Zelensky broke existing conventions and never cared to hold rallies or gave media interviews. But his outreach to people through social media excited many younger voters.

Zelinsky speaks Russian and Ukrainian fluently and is more acceptable to Ukraine's largely Russian-speaking east.

Clearly, the electorate has made a choice on an anti-establishment figure whose slogan of cleaning the system from corruption struck a chord with the people.

Against corruption and war

Explaining his vision on Ukraine, Zelensky told CNBC that his victory would make Ukraine more democratic and free from corruption.

Zelensky said he wanted a country free from war.

“We will do diplomatic meetings … We don’t want war. We don’t want to fight, we want to stop the war in Donbass,” Zelensky added.

Ukraine has been a point of tensions between the West and Russia. The present pro-West government led by business magnate Poroshenko came up in 2014 after a revolt against pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

During the turmoil, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and is allegedly backing militant groups in the eastern part of Ukraine.

According to BBC, Zelinsky's political challenge ahead will be his relationship with Ukraine's controversial oligarch Igor Kolomoisky.

The latter, owning the TV channel 1+1 had backed the actor immensely. The oligarch is under probe for many business dealings. Zelensky, however, stated that he is independent and is no puppet of Kolomoisky.

The business and industry are looking at how the new incumbent will reform the economy and manage Ukraine’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programs.