By Canadian Press

Comedian leads Ukraine presidential vote, runoff in 3 weeks

Apr 1, 2019 | 12:27 AM

KIEV, Ukraine — Early results in Ukraine’s presidential election show a comedian with no political experience maintaining his strong lead against the incumbent president in the first round, setting the stage for a runoff in three weeks.

With just over half of the polling stations counted Monday, Volodomyr Zelenskiy had 30.2 per cent of the vote, while incumbent President Petro Poroshenko was a distant second with about 16.6 per cent. Ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko trailed behind with 13 per cent. The results were in sync with a top exit poll.

The strong showing of Zelenskiy reflects the public longing for a fresh leader who has no links to the corruption-ridden Ukrainian political elite and can offer a new approach to settling the grinding conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

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The Associated Press