Ukraine election: Poroshenko and comedian Zelensky enter the confrontation round

Early morning on April 1 (Hanoi time), poll results outside the polling booth showed that candidate Vladimir Zelensky and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko will likely face off in the second round of the presidential election.

Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky won the most votes with 30.4% of the votes. Current President Poroshenko came in second with 17.8% of the votes. Meanwhile, the blond-haired former Prime Minister, leader of the “Batkivschina” party, Yulia Tymoshenko came in third with 14.2% of the votes.

The poll results are not much different from previous predictions. Due to not having enough 50% of the votes, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky and Mr. Poroshenko will face off directly in the second round taking place on April 25.

Before his supporters, Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the people who voted for him, not "voting for something funny". Before the election, Mr. Zelensky predicted his own failure. Mr. Zelensky said that he would run for parliament if he did not win the presidential election.

Comedian Zelenskiy stressed that he would not view his loss in the presidential election as a failure, saying: "This is not a failure... This will be just a test, a big step... I will have other things to do. I will be ready to run for Congress."

Incumbent President Poroshenko also thanked voters, saying that Ukraine had just undergone a test of freedom of expression.

However, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko claimed that the election results were tampered with. Ukrainian security forces intervened during the voting process. Ms. Tymoshenko said that the results of a parallel vote count showed that Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky won the most votes in the first round with 27% of the votes, she was in second place with 20.9% of the votes, and President Poroshenko was in third place with 17.5% of the votes.

According to a nationwide poll conducted jointly by 112 Ukraine and NewsOne Media, the majority of votes for comedian Volodymyr Zelensky came from the eastern regions of Ukraine.

79 polling stations have been set up in the area of ​​the Joint Forces Operation in Donbass; 14 stations are located in the Lugansk Region and 65 others are located in the border area with the Donetsk Region.

The vote comes as Ukraine continues to suffer from an economic downturn, rising unemployment and falling living standards. According to the latest report from the State Finance Ministry, Kiev’s budget deficit has reached 13.7 billion baht ($500 million).