Zelenskiy maintains comfortable lead in presidential poll

Sketch comedian and actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy has maintained
a comfortable lead in the presidential race, according to the latest poll
released by the Rating Sociological Group on March 19. Among decided voters,
24.9% will cast their ballot for Zelenskiy, compared to 18.8% for Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and 17.4% for President Petro Poroshenko. Among
decided voters, 49.6% said they won’t vote for Poroshenko under any conditions.
In the second-round runoff, Poroshenko would lose to both Zelenskiy (19% vs.
39%) and Tymoshenko (19% vs. 28%). The poll was conducted among 2,500
respondents between March 9 and 15.

Zenon Zawada: We expect
the second-round runoff will be between Zelenskiy and Poroshenko. Being
neck-and-neck with Tymoshenko, Poroshenko has enough access to state resources
to ensure he will qualify for the runoff (using sophisticated manipulations, if
need be). That will draw inevitable protests of vote fraud by the Tymoshenko
campaign (accusations of which have already begun),
which will be organized on a weekly basis. The protests will continue to extend
beyond the runoff scheduled for Apr. 21, but are unlikely to draw significant
public support.