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Fed up with bigwig politicians, Ukraine just might elect a comedian for president.
Neither the republic nor the democracy are perfect. We see this ever-present fact in Europe with the occurrence of things like Brexit.
Ukrainians have taken this fact one step further. In a bold effort to once and for all eliminate the government corruption it has recently faced, its new darling candidate has become none other than comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy. What qualifies him? Nothing, aside from playing a man who accidentally accepts the presidency on a popular TV series. Much like what Ukrainians seem to expect of Zelenskiy, the TV character breezes through the trials and tribulations of bureaucratic craziness by acting and speaking with integrity. How wholesome.
“Zelenskiy will probably be in the second round, up against either Poroshenko or Tymoshenko, which means that it’s going to be a contest between the new and the old.
Ukrainians must then decide whether they are so fed up with the existing politicians that they’ll vote in a complete novice and outsider, or will their cautious instincts reassert themselves and they’ll say we had better go with the devil we know rather than somebody completely unknown.” – Robert Brinkley, Chatham House of Ukraine (political forum).
Even respected pundits believe that Zelenskiy has a chance at shaking things up and garnering votes. This is even while being up against a former Prime Minister (Tymoshenko) and the current President (Poroshenko), who has faced intense backlash after failing to facilitate change against the nation’s problem with poverty. Each candidate seems to have zeroed in on a specific issue to target, whether it be gas prices or anti-corruption policies.
Pound for pound, Zelenskiy seems like a fair choice. Being new and full of promise makes him already ahead of the other candidates, even if his arrival to the platform does seem to be a situation out of a sitcom.
