According to the exit polls, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has won the first round of the Ukrainian elections even without political experience.
Mr Zelenskiy, who played the president on his TV show won 30.08% of the votes, while the runner-up and current Ukrainian leader, Petro Poroshenko won just 16.65%.
On Sunday evening and few minutes after the exit polls were announced, Zelenskiy told cheering supporters, “I would like to say ‘thank you’ to all the Ukrainians who did not vote just for fun. It is only the beginning, we will not relax.”
Mr Zelenskiy aims to bring into reality his TV show where he portrays an ordinary citizen fighting corruption and emerging president.
Staging no rallies, doing only a few interviews and having no strong political views, Mr Zelenskiy appears to have broken the ‘Campaign Commandments’.
His brilliant use of social media appealed more to the younger voters who comprised a majority of the voters.
Language rights are a hugely sensitive topic, and Mr Zelenskiy’s readiness to speak both Russian and Ukrainian at a time has gained him support in Eastern Ukraine, in which a majority are Russian-speaking.
A total of 39 candidates, including Ex-PM, Yulia Tymoshenko were on the ballot paper, and with none of the candidates receiving 50% of the votes, the top two, Mr Zelenskiy, and Mr Poroshenko will go forward to the run-off on 21 April.
Yulia Tymoshenko, second runner-up was eliminated from the race having just received 13.38% of the votes.
She served as prime minister and has also run for president twice, in 2010 and 2014. She played a chief role in the 2004 Orange Revolution, Ukraine’s first big push to get herself allied with the EU.
The current conflict between the Ukrainian troops and the eastern separatists would be inherited by the next president, as Ukraine also strives to fulfil EU requirements for stronger economic ties.