A national exit poll shows that the comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy has won the presidential election in Ukraine. In the second round run-off between the now ousted president Petro Poroshenko and the political newcomer Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the comedian clearly kept the upper hand with 73% to 25%. Although this is only an exit poll, the difference is gigantic. There can be no doubt that the comedian, best know for his role as an honest, ordinary teacher who becomes president in the TV series Servant of the People (Sluha Narodu), will be Ukraine’s next president.
On March 28, I saw Petro Poroshenko two days before the first round election day in Lviv. Standing in front of the opera house, in front of a very silent, but attentive crowd, he looked very tired. His days seemed numbered back then already. His rhetoric was excellent, convincing to some listeners. Towards the end, he even got emotional. But he has not delivered. Most voters could not forget that fact.
Since regaining its independence in 1991, Ukraine has been governed by corrupt politicans. After nearly three decades of incompetence, corruption and nepotism, many Ukrainians opted for a protest vote. Can it get worse? Yes. But a change was needed.
Petro Poroshenko is a billionaire oligarch with a shady past who promised to reform Ukraine and fight corruption. Very little has happened. Whenever the National Anit-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, set-up in 2014, came close to people in power, investigations were stopped. Over the years, several high-level anti-corruption officials resigned in protest.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is of course not only a comedian, but also a clever businessman. He has ties to the very shady oligarch billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who not only founded PrivatBank, but also owns a majorty of 1+1 Media Group. The group’s TV channel 1+1 airs Zelenskiy’s series Servant of the People. Is the new president therefore a puppet of Kolomoyskyi, as alleged by Poroshenko and his camp? There is no proof, but it cannot be entirely excluded that there are some ties. However, Zelenskiy is surely not a puppet in the hands of Russian President Putin, as his opponents alleged.
Ukraine is a country full of problems. Most ordinary people make not more than $200 per month. Together with Russia, Ukraine is considered Europe’s most corrupt country. According to an article by the German Süddeutsche Zeitung, Ukraine loses some $4.8 billion per year at the corrupt customs offices.
About 0.9% Ukrainians are living with HIV/AIDS. In 2014 in a club in Lviv, a foreign student of the faculty of medecin told me that for 50 UAH (back then 2 euro!), you can get a blowjob. Prostitution is widespread and a big business, attracting plenty of foreigners.
Russia and Ukraine share many problems, but the average Russian earns a much higher GDP per capita than the average Ukrainian. Will President Volodymyr Zelenskiy be able to change the situation? Just days before the election, he presented his future presidential team of 20 collaborators, including the former finance minister Oleksandr Danylyuk and the former minister of defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko. The “ideologue” of his program is Ruslan Stefanchuk, a doctor of law, corresponding member of the Ukrainian Legal Science Academy; Zelenskiy studied law himself. They met however as students at a TV comic team contest.
The Ukrainian voters gave Volodymyr Zelenskiy a chance. He will have little time to produce results.
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Article added on April 21, 2019 at 20:31 Berlin time.
