Europe | Candyman v comic

Ukraine heads for the polls, with a comedian leading

Voters are so fed up they might pick a man who played a president on TV

The comic contender

THE MOST encouraging thing about Ukraine’s presidential election is that nobody knows who is going to win. In that sense, democracy in Ukraine is healthy—certainly more so than in its post-Soviet neighbours Russia and Belarus. The latest polls show Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian-cum-candidate, leading, with the support of some 30% of the voters who have made up their minds. Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent president, and Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, are running neck-and-neck for second place. Yury Boyko, a former energy minister, and Anatoly Hrytsenko, a former defence minister, trail a distant fourth and fifth. A quarter of voters remain undecided. With none of the nearly 40 candidates likely to garner the majority needed for a victory in the first round on March 31st, the two front-runners will face off on April 21st.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Unscripted”

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