Comedian Zelenskiy wins Ukraine presidential election: exit polls

A Ukrainian comedian who plays a president on television will now hold the role in real life, according to exit polls from Sunday’s election.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy defeated incumbent President Petro Poroshenko by a landslide based on an exit poll released after voting stations closed, according to multiple reports.

{mosads}Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old who has never held public office, received 73.2 percent of the nationwide vote, while Poroshenko only received 25.3 percent.

If the poll results are correct, Zelenskiy, who won nearly twice as many votes as Poroshenko in the first-round election held last month, will become president in a clear rebuke of the incumbent’s leadership.

Poroshenko, a chocolate magnate, has several allegations of corruption against him.

The former foreign minister campaigned on leading Ukraine into the European Union and NATO, but seemingly was unable to persuade voters on that strategy after promising the same in 2014.

Zelenskiy had few detailed policies, but promised the Ukrainian people he would fight the rampant corruption in the nation’s political system.