Ukraine’s comic-turned-president headed for absolute majority in parliamentary first
- Sitcom star Volodymyr Zelensky shocked Ukraine by winning the presidency in April
- His party looks set to pick up more than half of parliament’s 450 seats – ushering in a generational shift in the country’s political arena
The 41-year-old became his country’s youngest ever post-Soviet leader when he took office two months ago and has promised to stamp out corruption and end a separatist war.
His newly created Servant of the People party – named after a sitcom in which he played a president – took around 42 per cent of the weekend vote, with 50 per cent of votes counted.
Media projections on Monday showed this puts the party on track to pick up more than half of the parliament’s 450 seats, the best showing by any party in Ukraine’s post-1991 history.
The result is the culmination of a stunning turnaround in Ukrainian politics and will bring a host of newcomers into parliament and government.
One of the many young and politically inexperienced future lawmakers that will enter parliament is Zhan Beleniuk, a 28-year-old Olympic wrestler with Rwandan roots.