Ukraine’s first round of presidential elections on March 31, 2019, was a fascinating contest. The ballot included 39 candidates, including the incumbent, chocolate kingpin Petro Poroshenko, former prime minister (and previously jailed) Yulia Tymoshenko, and Yoldymyr Zelensky, and actor, comedian, and Jew, who famously played the role of a naive schoolteacher who–to his surprise–becomes the president of Ukraine. This was in the TV series, “Servant of the People.”
You can watch the first episode of “Servant of the People” here.
The results of the first round gave over 30% of the vote to Zelensky and his Servant of the People party. Chocolate oligarch Poroshenko placed with under 16% of the votes during the first round, and Tymoshenko claimed only 13% of the votes.
With no candidate receiving greater than 50% of the votes, a runoff election was held on April 21, 2019, between Zelensky and Poroshenko. Zelensky grabbed 73% of the votes and became Ukraine’s president.
Barely two months later, on July 25, 2019, the new president of Ukraine was on the receiving end of a controversial telephone call from former United States president Donald Trump, during which Trump put pressure on Zelensky to meddle in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. This led to the first of two impeachments for America’s latest version of a TV star turned president. (I returned to Ukraine in July 2019 for the snap parliamentary elections on July 21st. I was on my way home when Trump called Zelensky.
A transcript of Trump’s depressing call to Zelensky can be found here.
For those of you who are really curious about the Ukraine presidential election, you can read OSCE’s report here.