With the interesting results coming out of the 1st Round of the Presidential Election in Ukraine, I thought I would do a different blogpost today, postponing my current Government Explanation Series. The result of the exit poll, which are normally very accurate, have the top two candidates as…
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy topping it with 30.4% of the vote.
- Current Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko coming in 2nd with 17.8% of the vote.
The rest of the votes went to various other candidates who have now been eliminated and since neither of the top two got more than 50% of the vote that means there will be a 2nd Round of the Presidential Election between the top two at a later date.
But what is interesting about this get-up or this outcome is the candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a figure who has held no political office and has no political experience (although he has voiced his thoughts on certain political issues, but then what celebrities have not?) and is best-known for his leading role in ‘Servant of the People’, a popular TV program in the country which he plays as a fictional President of Ukraine. Zelenskiy is also a comedian, screenwriter and director.
Something like this happening would only really be expected within a movie or TV show itself, a president (Petro Poroshenko) versus someone who played as a president in fiction. But in all likelihood, it seems like the comedian and actor is going to be a formidable opponent to beat… despite him not even actively campaigning, his publicity alone practically did all the work for him.
And so, it is a growing trend we perhaps begin to see form here, where people with little political experience, limited to no held political office and sometimes with existing entertainment publicity managing to reach into high-end political office, all in all it is often dubbed “Populist” or “Non-establishment” as it deviates from the often-expected candidates, normally being from two well-established parties or blocs, that would be expected to win. Some such examples of Populist/Non-establishment include Donald Trump in the US, Emmanuel Macron in France winning through his own newly made party “En Marche” taking out the two established political parties, The Republicans and Socialists, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Tsipras in Greece and Salvini alongside the Lega and 5 Star Movement in Italy, Jeremy Corbyn securing the Labour party leadership in the United Kingdom was also seen as non-establishment/populist, among others.
As well as the above we also have seen increasing non-establishment seat gains in both national and local elections in many mostly Western countries, this has included AfD and the Green Party in Germany, Forum for Democracy party in the Netherland’s recent Senate election and the Sweden Democrats in Sweden as well as others. Right before the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom announced a referendum on whether to leave the EU, UKIP had begun to make gains in vote share on the previous General Election and had also gained lots of seats in local elections and seats on the EU Parliament, but after the BREXIT result the non-establishment party has since lost a lot of what it had gained.
As I have laid out in the above this trend seems to be on its way to continuing in Ukraine now, but let’s take a look at the two candidates that will be facing off in a 2nd round vote off…
Petro Poroshenko
Poroshenko is the current President of Ukraine, leading the country through the aftermath of a revolution that overthrew the previous president and has also led the country through the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the ongoing Russian separatist insurgency in the East of the country that is currently at a stalemate. Poroshenko has prized himself with leading the country through these troublesome times including loosening ties with Russia and moving closer to Europe and enabling the rest of the country to remain largely secure from the conflict in the East.
Poroshenko wishes to be reelected to continue his work on the above issues, keeping the country secure, but him and his administration has also been shadowed with corruption, that has been a common and rife problem in Ukrainian politics and although Poroshenko has made moves to lesson it, many believe he has not done enough, also in the Panama Papers it was revealed he had set up an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands. he has also had to contend with a faltering economy, although Poroshenko has been working reforms alongside an IMF bailout to try and bring forth a more stabilized economy.
Poroshenko and other candidates have also been accused with corruption in the election, including removal of ballot papers, unauthorized polling station campaigning and attempted bribing of voters. The fact that last time Petro Poroshenko won outright in the 1st Round of the 2014 election, after the revolution that removed Viktor Yanukovych from office goes to show how things have changed. Last time Poroshenko won with more than 50% of the vote, eliminating a run off; his result in the 1st round of the current election showing a sharp decline in his popularity since then.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Photo by Максим Стоялов from Wikimedia. License.
The fictional president, comedian, screenwriter and director has plans for a number of reforms in Ukraine, including boosting the economy by attracting investment through a rework of the judicial system, a reform to taxes and also just like the fictional president he played on ‘Servant of the People’ he has strongly pledged to fight against the rampant corruption found in Ukrainian politics.
Despite having no real political experience and without holding any political office and without even doing any campaigning, Zelenskiy has become the most favoured to win the 2nd round over Petro Poroshenko in the 21st April run off.
If he does win the run-off it once again goes to show that slowly but surely a large movement against the established principles, parties and candidates of politics is still continuing to gain ground in the West.
It will be interesting to see what happens on the run-off on 21st April and if Zelenskiy does win, watching the aftermath and the outcome of his pledges. Another positive thing that many have took overall from the election, is that all of the pro-Russia candidates were eliminated, which goes to show us that Russia, despite annexing Crimea and most-likely backing the separatists in the East, have no real influence in the country’s elections, at least for now, but it will also be interesting to see how Russia responds to the result on the 21st April.
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