EDMONTON, Canada– When Tetiana Usenko drove the 300 kilometers from Calgary to Edmonton in order to vote in the final round of the Ukrainian presidential elections on April 21, she already knew her candidate had lost.
As she drove, comedic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy was already celebrating his victory at the party headquarters in Kyiv.
He was about to become Ukraine’s sixth president: with 87 percent of the vote counted, Zelenskiy already commanded 73 percent of the vote.
Incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, meanwhile, was finishing in a distant second place with only 24 percent of voters backing him, according to the Central Election Commission, or CEC.
But it didn’t stop Usenko from making the lengthy drive.
“I voted because I had to – it’s important for me personally,” Usenko told the Kyiv Post at the polling station in Edmonton, one of the 101 polling locations opened at embassies and consulates of Ukraine in 72 countries.
“While I was driving (to Edmonton), I was thinking that we live in a world where it’s so easy to manipulate people,” Usenko said.
“I’m scared for Ukraine. Even though I live and work in Canada at the moment, I want to come back home in the future and that was why I voted for the European values – as clichéd as it might sound, but that is true.”
Despite her personal disappointment, she remains optimistic. “When in the next five years people wonder how they ended up with (Zelenskiy), I be able to say (to) them – ‘I told you so,’” said Usenko, who owns a Ukrainian store in Calgary. “This is just one lost battle. Victory in this war will be in the future, I truly believe in that.”
Of the 301 Ukrainians who voted at the western Canada polling station in Edmonton, 208 backed Poroshenko.
Polling stations were also opened in Ottawa and Toronto, and the overall number of Ukrainian voters in Canada was 1,799.
Ukrainians who live abroad have strongly preferred sitting President Poroshenko to a political newcomer in this presidential election; something that stands in stark contrast to the choice of voters residing within Ukraine.
By 8 a.m. Kyiv time on April 22, the Central Election Commission said it had counted 87 percent of the ballots, with Poroshenko having won the diaspora but lost all but one Ukrainian oblast.
Around 57,000 Ukrainians living abroad voted in the second round of the election on April 21 – roughly equivalent to the population of mid-sized cities such as Antratsyt in Luhansk Oblast.
Ukrainians living abroad have appeared more likely to pay closer attention to foreign policy, international relations and Ukraine’s reputation among the international community. Voters in Ukraine, on the other hand, have to face an array of internal problems, from utility bills to bad roads and a struggling economy.
Now it will be up for a newly elected president to address all of those issues for Ukrainians at home and away.
Ukrainian student Viktoria Grynenko, currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Alberta, said she anticipated Zelenskiy’s victory “but hoped for a miracle.”
“What I didn’t expect is such dominating number (of Zelensky’s) support,” Grynenko added.
“Seeing that in the first round, results were different in Ukraine and from the foreign constituencies, I thought that sometimes people could see the situation better not being in the midst of it.”
She said her main fears now are about the economy, war, and Ukraine’s independence.
“I hope in a couple years I can say that I was wrong and these 73 percent were right at the election,” Grynenko told the Kyiv Post.
According to Ukraine’s constitution, Zelenskiy will be sworn into office by June 2 – no later than 30 days after the official results are announced by the CEC.
As president, he will become commander-in-chief of the military and nominate the defense and foreign ministers, and the prime minister, who will have to be approved by parliament.
Mykyta Gulenko, who moved to Canada in 2013, recalls how he couldn’t see himself living and doing business in Ukraine under the regime of Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych, who governed from 2010 until the EuroMaidan Revolution ousted him on Feb. 22, 2014.
Now he has little faith in Zelenskiy.
“What do I expect from him? Nothing. I just hope he won’t ruin what has been done already,” Gulenko said. “I don’t think he will dissolve the parliament, it won’t be a good move at all. As for Poroshenko, he has a chance to get enough seats in parliament this fall.”
As with any presidency, Zelenskiy will ultimately be judged on his actions rather than his pledges, which some observers have labelled vague.
But for plenty of Ukrainians who are looking at their homeland from across the sea, Ukraine’s sixth president has a lot to prove.
