Ukraine comedian romping to presidential win

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – With just over half of Ukraine’s polling stations reporting, a comedian whose only political experience consists of playing a president on TV is cruising toward a landslide victory in Sunday’s presidential election.

Sitcom star Volodymyr Zelenskiy has 73% of the votes reported so far, while President Petro Poroshenko is far behind at about 25%.

It is a crushing rebuke to Poroshenko’s five years in office and the results are seen as a reaction against Ukraine’s entrenched corruption and low standard of living.

Zelenskiy is promising wide changes in the top echelons of government. Ukraine has been plagued by rampant graft, a sickly economy and a grinding, five-year war with Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country that has killed over 13,000 people.