In the presidential election in Ukraine on March 31, the incumbent head of state Petro Poroshenko faces numerous opposition candidates. As the Central Election Commission announced yesterday, 90 potential applicants submitted their documents by the deadline. Thirty of them are allowed to run and more than 20 are not, and in forty cases, a review will be held by Friday, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
In recent surveys, the 40-year-old comedian Volodymyr Selensky is ahead. For him, 19 to 23 percent of eligible voters would vote. Poroshenko comes to 15 to 16 percent approval. The former head of government Yulia Tymoshenko reaches 16 to 19 percent.
In the eyes of many „straw man“ of an oligarch
Selensky has no political experience but is known in Ukraine and Russia for his TV shows and television series. Many consider him a „straw man“ of the oligarch Igor Kolomoiski, who is cross-eyed with Poroshenko and whose TV channel 1 + 1 Selensky devotes considerable time.
The 53-year-old businessman Poroshenko came to power in May 2014 after the riots on the Kiev Maidan Square and the overthrow of the more Russia-oriented President Viktor Yanukovich. He promised to fight corruption and to align the former Soviet republic more closely with the West. But critics accuse him of barely containing corruption. In addition, Poroshenko did little against friendly oligarchs.
Under Poroshenko, a military confrontation between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian fighters in the east of the country continued until today
Country out.
Third candidacy Tymoshenko
Tymoshenko had already run for the presidency in 2010 and 2014. Under Yanukovych, she was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison for malfeasance in connection with a controversial gas deal with Russia in 2011. In February 2014, she was released in the wake of the revolution in Ukraine. She then appeared several times with anti-Russian statements in appearance.
If in the first round no candidate reaches more than 50 percent of the vote, a second round will take place two weeks later.
