Comedian Zelensky leads Ukrainian polls

Volodymyr Zelensky leads opinion polls ahead of Ukraine’s presidential election.

According to a poll carried out by the Oleksandr Razumkov Centre for Economic and Political Studies, the comedian-turned-politician and leader of the newly formed Sluha Narodu (Servant of the People) party would receive 19 per cent of votes among those willing to go to the polling stations, were elections to be held this Sunday.

Ukraine’s incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko has the support of 16.8 per cent of voters while former prime minister and leader of the Batkivschyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko has 13.8 per cent.

According to the poll, Anatoliy Hrytsenko, leader of the Civic Position party would receive 7.3 per cent of the votes. The leader of the Opposition Bloc Yuriy Boyko polls at 7.1 per cent while the head of the Radical Party Oleh Liashko would gain 4.8 per cent.

All remaining candidates poll below three per cent.

The first round of the elections will be held on March 31. The two candidates achieving the highest number of votes will go into the final round on April 21.

The poll added that Mr Zelensky would beat both Mr Poroshenko and Ms Tymoshenko if he does indeed make the second round.

If the final round were to be a run-off between Mr Poroshenko and Ms Tymoshenko, the current president has a very slight lead.