Poroshenko's election billboards are being taken down in Ukraine today. They were found inconsistent with the laws of the country. It's a heavy blow against the campaign of the incumbent president bearing in mind that 1.5 weeks are left before the runoff. In this context, Poroshenko began to lose his nerve. A video was posted online that made Zelensky hire more security staff.
Anton Lyadov with the details.
Don't kick a junkie out of your entrance hall, they might be your next preZEdent. These leaflets have been posted in the apartment blocks of Kiev since this morning. For those who don't get the idea right away, the word "president" is written with uppercase Z and E in the middle. Pyotr Poroshenko has long suspected that his opponent Vladimir Zelensky uses drugs. The candidates no longer hold back when it comes to campaigning. The most discussed video in today's Ukraine is an altered promotional video for Vladimir Zelensky. Everyone's got their own line.
Dmitry Razumkov, Zelensky Campaign Chairman: "Every day, our opponents show us the new rock bottom and how to hit it".
Poroshenko himself doesn't canvass in his public speeches. In his speech at the Kiev Security Forum, he became personal.
Pyotr Poroshenko, President of Ukraine: "A virtual candidate addresses the people with the fake words and responses he learned by heart. He speaks exclusively from the screens of TVs and smartphones. It reminds me of the movie Equilibrium where the citizens of an imaginary city could only see their leader on giant screens".
Yulia Timoshenko also gave a speech at the same forum. She hasn't been seen in the Verkhovna Rada recently even though her People's Deputy card is inserted into the socket at her desk.
Yulia Timoshenko, leader of Fatherland party: "The main speaker held a speech before me. He passed all the tests but I didn't. I don't know if they would let me speak without my test results".
Timoshenko stated that she won't support either candidate in the runoff.
The opposition bloc shares her attitude said Viktor Medvedchuk in his interview with 60 Minutes.
Viktor Medvedchuk, Opposition Platform — For Life: "Neither of them are going to negotiate with Donbas or establish peace. That's why our party declared that it won't support either Poroshenko or Zelensky. Regarding the things Zelensky's team is saying, well, that's another stage of what Poroshenko started, Russophobia and the anti-Russian hysteria".
On the eve of the planned personal meeting, the candidates still can't schedule the debates. Here's the result of the attempts of the representatives of Zelensky and Poroshenko to schedule the meeting.
Artur Gerasimov, Poroshenko Campaign Chairman: "Pyotr Poroshenko confirms his participation in the debates at the Olimpiyskiy stadium on April 14".
It can only be April 19 and not April 14. However, Poroshenko was forced to answer some questions before the debate. During his live speech on the radio, he was asked why his promise to get rid of nepotism when appointing state employees was voiced five years after the beginning of his presidential term?
- Why was this statement voiced only two weeks before the elections?
Pyotr Poroshenko: “Since 2014, we've had a perfectly transparent appointment contest for all public offices. We hired a headhunting agency that attracted a lot of foreigners. Today, there's no universal recipe for the appointment procedures.”
Anatoly Shariy, blogger: "What are you talking about? You were asked about your buddies appointed to plum jobs. For five years, I didn't hear the signal, my ears were clogged, I had bananas in them. But now that you've voted for me, I hear you. And then I won't be hearing you again because you won't get to vote for another five years".
Last evening, Poroshenko's campaign office stated that it had nothing to do with the video of a truck hitting Zelensky. The police said that a criminal case has been opened because the video displays threats or violence towards a state official or a public figure.
Anton Lyadov and Anna Kolk Vesti.
