April 16, 2019 (CNBC) The
favorite to win Ukraine’s presidential election this weekend caused a stir on
Sunday by skipping a live televised debate with incumbent Petro Poroshenko –
but even that isn’t expect to damage his chances of winning the upcoming final
round of voting.
Volodymyr Zelensky, a
comedian and actor and the favorite to win a run-off round in the election this
coming Sunday, had agreed to face the more seasoned politician and incumbent
President Petro Poroshenko in a televised debate from Kiev’s Olympic Stadium
but the pair had disagreed on a date.
That left Poroshenko to
speak on his own for 45 minutes while standing next to an empty lectern for his
political opponent. Zelensky had not said that he was going to attend the
debate, instead agreeing to attend a televised debate on Friday, April 21.
Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko holds a news conference at Olympiskiy Stadium on April 14, 2019 in
Kiev, Ukraine. Zelensky, a television comedian making his first run for
political office, challenged President Poroshenko to a debate at the stadium
ahead of the April 21 vote, but due to a disagreement over dates, Zelensky did
not show up to the event organized by Poroshenko. Brendan Hoffman | Getty
Images News | Getty Images
It’s not the first bizarre
episode in an election race that has enlivened Ukrainians who appear to have
tired of the country’s old political guard. Zelensky accepted
Poroshenko’s invitation to hold debates with three conditions, one of them
being that both candidates take live drug and alcohol tests to, as Zelenksy put
it, “show the Ukrainian people that neither is an alcoholic or drug addict.” Experts say Zelenksy’s
“no-show” has not affected the likelihood that he will become president at a
final run-off vote next on April 21.
“I still cannot see
Poroshenko winning - he (Zelensky) is just too far ahead,” Timothy Ash, senior
emerging markets strategist at Bluebay Asset Management, told CNBC on Monday.
“Poroshenko’s negative ratings are just too high. He lost this election months
ago,” Ash added.
Unsurprisingly, Poroshenko
used his uninterrupted platform on Sunday to criticize an absent Zelensky and
his apparent lack of concrete manifesto. “If he hides from people
again, if he is afraid, we will invite him again. We will invite him every day
to every live show for the whole country to see who it is going to elect for
the next five years,” Poroshenko told the audience Sunday, according to news
reports.
Ukrainian presidential
candidate Volodymyr Zelensky seen talking to the media during his visit to the
medical center for a test. On April 3, 2019 presidential candidate Volodymyr
Zelenskiy declared his readiness to go to the debate before the second round of
presidential elections with Ukrainian President and presidential candidate
Petro Poroshenko, however, he voiced a number of conditions, in particular, the
debate should be held at the Olympiyskiy stadium in Kiev, and candidates must
pass a test for alcohol and drugs. SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images
Read the full article at:
0 comments:
Post a Comment