Administrative resource brings Poroshenko to runoff election - Slutsky
MOSCOW. April 1 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will be competing in the runoff election thanks to administrative resource he has as the incumbent chief of state, according to State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky.
"It is possible that Poroshenko has made his way to the runoff election exclusively by means of administrative resource and various sorts of machinations," Slutsky told the press on Monday.
"Anyway, preliminary results of the election demonstrate a failure of the policy of the 'Maidan' president who took the office as a result of the coup and waged a war on his own people," Slutsky said.
Preliminary results of the election also show that most of people in Ukraine reject the policy of Kyiv, he said.
"Neither the provocation staged in the Kerch Strait and the subsequent imposition of additional sanctions on Russia nor the sponsorship of Western tutors have enabled Poroshenko to win a convincing victory in the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election," Slutsky said.
Slutsky called for drawing final conclusions on the basis of information about possible violations in the ballot. "So far, Poroshenko has almost twice as less votes as the comedian and showman. Let us wait for final results," he said.
After 50.36% of votes had been counted, Volodymyr Zelensky gained 30.2% of the vote, Poroshenko got 16.64%, and Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko got 13.08%.