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Comic Zelensky routs Poroshenko with twice as many votes after 97.8% ballots counted

The CEC also announced that 1.18% of ballots were invalid

© EPA-EFE/STEPAN FRANKO

KIEV, April 2. /TASS/. Comedian and leader of the Servant of the People political party Vladimir Zelensky leads the Ukrainian presidential race with 30.26% of the vote, almost double the amount incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko received, who secured 15.92%, with 97.77% of the ballots counted, the Central Election Commission said.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN UKRAINE

According to the CEC, the leader of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party Yulia Timoshenko comes in third with 13.38%, followed by Yuri Boyko, candidate from the Opposition Platform - For Life party, with 11.66%. Head of the Civil Position party Anatoly Gritsenko took fourth place with 6.92%.

The Poltavskaya Region is the only constituency to have counted 100% of its ballots. The CEC also announced that 1.18% of ballots were invalid.
On March 31, Ukraine held the first round of the presidential election. The final voter turnout reached 62.8%. However, out of 29.6 mln Ukrainians on the voter lists just 18.8 mln people received their ballot papers. The lowest turnout was seen in the Zakarpatskay Region, in Ukraine’s southwest, while the most active regions were Lvov and Volyn in the country’s west.

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