Comic actor, Ukrainian president-elect Zelensky wins election polling station in Georgia
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has wished success to the new president of Ukraine.Photo: BBC.
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Ukrainian comic actor Volodymyr Zelensky, who has defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine’s presidential elections with 73 per cent of the total vote, received 50.38 per cent of votes in the polling station opened in Tbilisi at the Ukrainian embassy.
389 Ukrainian citizens in Georgia voted in Tbilisi.
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has wished success to the 41-year-old president-elect of Ukraine, who is best known for starring in a comic television show called Servant of the People.
Congratulations to the newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky! Georgia stands with Ukraine in its peaceful and democratic decision! ????????????????
— Mamuka Bakhtadze (@BakhtadzeMamuka) April 21, 2019
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili also tweeted:
Congratulations to Volodymyr Zelensky for his election as #Ukraine’s new President, and to the people of Ukraine for holding free and fair elections. I look forward to working with the new President and deepen our bilateral relations.
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) April 22, 2019
Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who faced charges in Ukraine in 2017, says that he has already appealed to the security service of Ukraine to remove a ban on his entry to the country that he “loves like a homeland.”
I want to become a part of the changes,” he said.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says that the election has provided a chance for improvement in Russian-Ukrainian relations.
Poroshenko, the fifth president of Ukraine, assumed office in 2014, in the wake of protests related to the country’s EU integration and amid armed conflict with Russia.
A former ally of the former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, Poroshenko says he will stay in politics.
The first round of the presidential elections was held on March 31, 2019 with 39 candidates, at which time Zelensky received 30.24 per cent of the vote and Poroshenko received 15.94.
More than 30 million voters were registered in the election run-off yesterday.
More than 3,000 international observers monitored the elections from 22 countries and 19 NGOs.