Ukrainian leader seeks support to fight graft

KIEV, July 21 (AP): Ukrainians are voting in an early parliamentary election in which the new party of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set to take the largest share of votes.

Polls ahead of Sunday's balloting showed Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party getting support from a little more than half of those who intended to vote.

But only 225 of the 424 seats to be filled in the Verkhovna Rada parliament are being chosen by party list; the rest are single-mandate seats, whose distribution could differ from nationwide sentiment.

Zelenskiy, who took office in May, called the election three months ahead of schedule because the parliament was dominated by his opponents.

He is seeking a majority that would support his promised fight against Ukraine's endemic corruption and for other reforms.

His "Servant of the People" party - named after the television comedy in which he played a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president - is supported by 52% of the Ukrainians who intend to vote, according to a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology.

A party led by one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest associates, tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, is polling in second place with about 10%, followed by the European Solidarity party of former President Petro Poroshenko, whom Zelenskiy defeated in a landslide in the country's spring presidential election.

Zelenskiy's party intends to continue a pro-Western course toward joining the European Union and NATO, combining this with economic reforms and an intensified fight against endemic corruption.

"With Zelenskiy, a new political team should come into politics that will continue the reforms that Poroshenko spoke about beautifully but did not do," said 35-year-old lawyer Viktor Shumeiko at a polling station in Kiev.