The election headquarters of President Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent seeking re-election, had little excitement on March 31 after the primary exit polls became public, promising the runoff for Poroshenko.
The president gave a short speech, thanking his supporters and slamming opponents, and left right after.
The first round of Ukraine’s presidential election took place on March 31. Poroshenko, who announced in January he would seek re-election, had his election headquarters set up at the Mystetskyi Arsenal near the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Kyiv’s holy sites.
Little was happening prior to 8 p.m. when voting ended and primary exit polls could be published, with the headquarters revealingly empty. Head of Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction in parliament Artur Gerasymov told journalists he was hoping for a fair election process, while regional observers from Poroshenko’s team gave flash interviews citing violations by an unspecified woman candidate – clearly hinting at Poroshenko’s opponent, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
When the primary exit polls were revealed at 8 p.m., depicting that Poroshenko was getting around 18 percent and going in the second round of the election with front-runner comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was predicted to gain around 30 percent, the crowd was shy on reactions.
The main event, the president’s speech, took place a good half hour after the primary exit polls revealed that Poroshenko is making it to the runoff.
When the president arrived, the audience which seemingly gathered moments prior to the arrival of Poroshenko himself, began cheering.
Poroshenko began his speech by thanking supporters.
“You did very well, I’m proud of you,” said the president, saying that for the past two weeks Ukrainian channels shared Russian propaganda, trying to discredit him.
The president quickly began slamming his main opponents, Zelenskiy and Tymoshenko.
“There was never before a case when opposition had such access to mass media, which they used to attack the president, instead of promoting their own ideas,” said Poroshenko, adding that “We broke Russia’s scenario, as they most definitely didn’t want to see Poroshenko in the second round.”
“I’m open to dialogue,” said the president, while following by saying that Zelenskiy lacks political experience and is controlled by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
“April 1 is April fools’ day, yet on April 2, all jokes aside, we are preparing to win,” said the president, referring to the results of Zelenskiy.
“You should decide who should be the commander in chief,” Poroshenko said. “Russia isn’t going to be represented by (famous Russian comedian) Maxim Galkin.”
Talking about his results, Poroshenko said that this whole time he was driven not by ratings, but by deeds.
“Mistakes are not made only by those who do not do anything,” said the president, with the crowd erupting with Poroshenko’s campaign slogan “army, language, faith,” referring to Poroshenko’s proclaimed achievements in rebuilding the army, promoting Ukrainian language and advocating for Ukraine church independence.
While exiting the Poroshenko shouted that he wants to hold a public debate against Zelenskiy, prior to the second round, with both candidates ignoring the official debates that were supposed to be held on March 29, between the top three candidates on UA Pershyi, state-owned TV channel.
With the president leaving his election campaign headquarters around 9 p.m., just an hour after the polling stations closed, the crowd followed. Only a handful of journalists stayed at Mystetskyi Arsenal, drinking free coffee and waiting for final exit poll results.
