There’s no longer any doubt about it – comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy is the front-runner to become the next president of Ukraine.
With 85 percent of ballots counted as of 4 p.m. on April 1, the Central Election Commission reports Zelenskiy had got 30.3 percent of the vote, leaving his main rival, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, far behind with 16 percent. The two will battle it out in a runoff election on April 21.
On Election Day on March 31, Zelenskiy celebrated his victory with a party and showed that he gives as good as he gets when it comes to cutting comments about his opponents.
Zelenskiy’s campaign headquarters stationed in a sports bar on the third floor of the Parkovyi convention center in Kyiv. The Parkovyi center is widely known as “Yanukovych’s helicopter pad,” as ownership of the building was controlled by the fugitive former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. It was recently acquired by a lawmaker with the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction in parliament, Maksym Yefimov.
The headquarters had subdued lighting and green screens (Zelenskiy’s campaign color is green). A DJ played upbeat music. Waiters served wine and champagne. A lot of effort was put into entertainment. While awaiting the early exit poll results, journalists killed time playing football and air hockey. The all-night agenda included karaoke, a PlayStation competition, and a trivia quiz.
Zelenskiy arrived shortly before the polling stations closed at 8 p.m. and played ping-pong in front of cameras.
As the preliminary results of the national exit poll came in, Zelenskiy went on a stage with his wife Olena, cheered by his jubilant team and supporters. The actor, who speaks Russian most of the time, addressed the audience and his voters in Ukrainian.
“Thank you for voting ‘not for the lulz,’” he said hinting at a social media campaign started by rock musician Svyatoslav Vakarchuk days before the election. Vakarchuk called Ukrainians to “not vote for the lulz” which many saw as a not-so-subtle hint to not vote for the comedian. Poroshenko’s team picked up the expression.
Zelenskiy also denied the rumors that he would now enter negotiations with Yulia Tymoshenko, the Batkivshchyna party leader, who came third in the vote.
“We’re young people, and we don’t want to drag the past into the future,” he said playing on his image as a new face in a cohort of established politicians.
If he wins the runoff, the 41-year-old celebrity will become the youngest president of Ukraine and the first one without any political or public office experience.
Zelenskiy returned to the stage one more time two hours later – in order to respond to comments by his opponent in the second round, President Poroshenko. In his post-vote speech, Poroshenko slammed the actor as “a puppet of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.” Zelenskiy’s production studio has worked with the oligarch’s television channel 1+1 since 2012. Kolomoisky’s former lawyer Andriy Bohdan has been an adviser to Zelenskiy’s campaign office.
“I have only one question to him: “Are you a puppet of Svynarchuk or is Svynarchuk your puppet?” Zelenskiy said, hitting a raw nerve, as Poroshenko’s re-election campaign had suffered badly from a corruption scandal involving the son of his top ally, ex-deputy secretary of the State Defense and Security Council Oleh Hladkovskiy, previously known under the last name of Svynarchuk.
In his bitter speech, Poroshenko suggested that Zelenskiy wasn’t qualified to become the commander-in-chief of a country at war with Russia.
“At the negotiations table, Russia will be represented not by Maksim Galkin or Yevgeniy Petrosyan (Russian comedians), but, just so you know, Vladimir Putin,” the president said in a condescending manner.
Zelenskiy didn’t respond to this remark but replied to a journalist’s question what his first words as president of Ukraine would be to Putin.
“At last, you have returned our territories. How much money are you going to compensate us for taking our territories away and helping people who participated in escalating Crimea and the Donbas?” Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy also said he was ready to face Poroshenko in debates. The two did not take part in television debates on March 28 held by Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne.
Asked by a journalist whether he was prepared to lose, Zelenskiy said he would not go against the people’s will.
“I’m not going to call for a Maidan (protest) to defend myself if Ukrainians are against me,” he said.
Zelenskiy’s team has done an impressive job in building an election campaign in just a few months. Behind the scenes at the fun-packed headquarters on Election Day, thousands of people who joined the actor’s presidential campaign were working hard doing a parallel vote count and documenting violations of the election process.
The team recorded over 4,000 violations throughout the voting day, but these were technical and didn’t affect the vote result, Zelenskiy’s political consultant Dmitriy Razumkov said at a midnight briefing.
But this year’s presidential election campaign has been marred by scandals and mutual allegations of vote-buying from different candidates, and the campaign is now likely to get much dirtier.
Thus, protecting the voting results is the main task for Ze Team in the second round, said Ivan Bakanov, the leader of Servant of the People, the political party named after Zelenskiy’s hit television series.
“The most difficult task for us in the runoff election is to find some 280,000 people to work as observers and representatives in election commissions,” Bakanov told the Kyiv Post.
Officially registered at the end of 2017, Servant of the People doesn’t have an established structure yet, which didn’t prevent it from leading in parliamentary election polls. The election to Ukraine’s legislature will take place in October.
Zelenskiy earlier said his party would run for parliament no matter whether he wins or loses in presidential election. But on the election day, Bakanov was was vague about whether the party will run and who will be on its election list.
“We’re working on it,” he said. “HR (human resources) is the hardest part. A political party isn’t only about lists, it’s about all the other people who support it.”
A number of high-profile supporters came to celebrate Zelenskiy’s victory on March 31, namely former Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk, ex-member of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention Ruslan Ryaboshapka, and former Minister of Economics and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius.
“Today, Ukrainians voted for a chance for change. The old politicians have been given a red card (a dismissal from the pitch in soccer terminology),” Abromavicius told the Kyiv Post.
“Zelenskiy is a great platform for everyone who joins his future team and moves Ukraine in the right direction. We needed a leader like him, who won’t micromanage and will create a team to delegate powers to,” Abromavicius said, adding that he hopes to be on the team.
Zelenskiy is keeping the names of his future team a secret for now, but has promised to reveal them closer to the runoff.
