Showman Volodymyr Zelenskiy keeps leading the presidential race just days before Election Day of March 31, according to the poll by the Razumkov Center think tank published on March 27.
It is one of the last surveys to come out before the election: March 28 is the last day when election polls can be published, three days before the vote.
The results show that 24.8 percent of the decided voters want to support Zelenskiy, while the incumbent President Petro Poroshenko gets the second place with 22.1 percent, and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the third place claims 14.8 percent of votes.
The poll shows Poroshenko getting closer to Zelenskiy than in earlier polls, with the gap between them now down to 2.7 percent. Since January, surveys often showed Poroshenko in the third place, preceded by Zelenskiy and Tymoshenko, but in the past two weeks the president has been more frequently taking the second place in the polls.
The new poll also finds that the gap between Poroshenko and Tymoshenko (14.8 percent) is increasing, with the incumbent now ahead by nearly eight points.
The leading trio is followed by pro-Russian candidate Yuriy Boyko (10 percent), former Defense Minister Anatoliy Grytsenko of the Civic Position party with 8.2 percent, Oleh Lyashko of the Radical Party with 6 percent, Oleksandr Vilkul from pro-Russian Opposition Bloc (4.6 percent), former chief of the SBU security service Ihor Smeshko (3.7 percent), nationalist candidate Ruslan Koshulynskiy (1.5 percent), and Oleksandr Shevchenko from the UKROP party (1.5 percent).
The leaders of the race aren’t supported equally around the country, according to the poll. Zelenskiy would get 12 percent of votes in western Ukraine and up to 26 percent in the south, while Tymoshenko can get 7 percent in Ukraine’s east and up to 15 percent in central oblasts. Meanwhile, nearly 24 percent of voters in western Ukraine and 17 percent in the center favor Poroshenko. The president appears to be much less popular in southern Ukraine (8 percent) and in the east (11 percent).
Also, the poll confirms Zelenskiy’s popularity among the youth, as up to 39 percent of 18-29-year-olds favor him. Poroshenko appeared to be much less trendy for the young generation as only 9 percent of voters under 30 intend to vote for him.
Tymoshenko’s support is higher among the older generations. As the poll shows, 14 percent of voters aged 50-59 and 18 percent of those over 60 are ready to vote for her.
In the run-off projections, Zelenskiy would prevail over both Poroshenko (36.5 percent versus 22.7 percent respectively) and Tymoshenko (33.5 percent versus 19.5 percent respectively).
In case of Poroshenko going into the second round with Tymoshenko, both opponents would have nearly equal chances to win, with 25.1 percent for Tymoshenko and 23.3 for Poroshenko.
The run-off will take place on April 21 if none of the candidates get more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round on March 31.
