Election in Ukraine: Poroshenko concedes defeat as Volodymyr Zelenskyi takes over 70% of votes

On April 21, Ukraine hosted a presidential election runoff. 

The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Ukraine has already processed 99.48% of protocols from precinct election commissions on the results of the second round of presidential elections. Presidential candidate 41-year-old Volodymyr Zelenskyi received 73.23% of the votes (13 469 723), while his opponent, incumbent head of state Petro Poroshenko, was supported by 24.45% of the voters (4 497 990).

Incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has gotten more vote in a foreign constituency in the runoff election. According to the Central Election Commission, 54.75% of voters supported Poroshenko, while 43.78% cast ballots for his opponent, showman Volodymyr Zelensky. A total of 59,830 Ukrainian citizens living abroad took part in the vote. Poroshenko received the majority of votes in Australia, Austria, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Ireland, Iran, Italy, Canada, China, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Sweden, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Portugal, Bulgaria, India, Cyprus, Korea, Macedonia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Croatia, Romania, Vietnam, UK, Turkey, Germany, Finland, France, Montenegro, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States.

At the same time, Zelenskyi leads in Azerbaijan, Argentina, Georgia, Congo, Qatar, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Armenia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Moldova, Peru, Poland, Slovakia, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Hungary, Brazil, and the Czech Republic. The votes split into equal parts in Algeria, Kuwait, and Chile.

According to the National Exit Poll 2019 results, Zelenskyi was supported by 73% of voters in the second round of the presidential election on April 21, while 25.5% voted for Poroshenko. According to 199 polling stations, the voter turnout in the second round was 62.07%.

“I’m leaving office, but I want to make it clear that I’m not leaving politics,” said Petro Poroshenko, acknowledging his failure to win a second term. “I will accept the will of the Ukrainian people,” he wrote on Twitter.

Poroshenko lost across all regions of the country, including in the west where he traditionally enjoyed strong support.

The final election results are expected to be announced April 30.

As we reported earlier, according to the official voting results of the first round of presidental elections, Volodymyr Zelenskyi got 30.24% of the vote (5,714,034 votes), and Petro Poroshenko – 15.95% (3,014,609 votes).