Ukraine’s new president Zelensky calls snap polls
Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelensky called snap parliamentary polls in his inaugural speech Monday and said his top priority is ending the war with Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east.
The 41-year-old comedian was sworn in as Ukraine’s youngest post-Soviet president a month after scoring a landslide victory over Petro Poroshenko with a campaign capitalising on widespread discontent with the political establishment amid poverty and corruption.
Zelensky -- whose only previous political experience was appearing as president in a popular TV show -- announced he would dissolve parliament in order to call early elections, originally scheduled for October.
“People must come to power who will serve the public,” Ukraine’s sixth president said, after wrangling with hostile lawmakers whom he called “petty crooks”.
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