you know. what if there's no escape. list. on the streets. and to how. to play. this is d.w. news live from berlin and he's the joker in the pack could ukrainians choose a comedian as their next president will ask our chief of correspondents why a bloody near selenski is leading the polls in a closely watched race also coming up the number of confirmed cases of cholera in mozambique in just one day aid agencies stepped up their efforts to find the

outbreak in the country already devastated by a cycle. i mary in evanston welcome to the program. ukrainians have begun voting in the first round of a presidential election and the vote is being watched closely in the west and in russia ukrainians have a dozens of candidates to pick from but polls indicate there are three frontrunners including a television comedian. the last time ukraine went to the polls in twenty fourteen the country was in freefall russia had just invaded an annex the crimea region and pro russian separatists had seized control of part of the country's east five years on though what are the issues foremost in ukrainians minds. connelly reports.

more than ten thousand people have lost their lives since war broke out in eastern ukraine back in twenty fourteen millions have been forced to leave their homes as the shooting continues political attempts to end the conflict remain stuck in no man's land but the fact the fighting didn't spread further and that ukraine's army was able to regroup essential to president petro poroshenko as campaign one is message to voters is clear only he can keep ukraine safe and stand up to russia. but five years of war have also left their mark on ukrainians pockets in europe second poorest nation real incomes are still lower than they were before the war as household bills have skyrocketed. over three million ukrainians have left the country in search of work it's these people pensioners and those on low income struggling to get by the ex prime minister yulia timoshenko is trying to reach she

promises to cut household bills in half as soon as she's elected and do more to ensure ukrainians can find work at home both president poroshenko and at prime minister to machine have been around for decades and many ukrainians especially younger voters are hungry for change. one person who seems to fit the bill is actor and comedian polygamous alinsky the forty one year old may have no previous political experience but he has played the president before and the hit series servant of the people the sitcom tells the story of a schoolteacher whose rant about the state of the country is caught on video by one of his pupils the video goes viral and the teacher suddenly finds himself catapulted to the top job. good morning mr president. mixing footage from the sitcom with his campaign ads zelinsky is now trying to convince ukrainians that he's the outside of the country needs to shake up its corrupt politics his motto become president but stay ordinary guy his critics argue that in reality he's no

outsider launching a campaign calling him a puppet of the oligarch. a sworn enemy of president petro poroshenko its color scheme who put zelinsky on television in the first place and on whose channel he announced his surprise run for the presidency selenski denies this anything untoward about his relations with the businessman. for now the polls put zelinsky in first place far ahead of his rivals but questions remain come election day will ukrainians really take the jump and vote for someone whose only experience of politics so far has been with a t.v. script in his hands. on the w.'s nick connelly filed that report and he joins us now for more from kiev hello to you nick so the frontrunner currently is a comedian but what makes you crazy and think that he can actually do the job as leader of the country. morning well qualified or not i

think he sees it's mainly about protest sentiment about a kind of collective weariness with the political class here in ukraine that's been really in charge of this country the past twenty thirty years it's imports remember that when the soviet union fell apart in the early ninety's poland and ukraine for instance were as rich as wealthy person as each other now there's over a million and a half ukrainians working in poland so ukraine really has fallen back economically corruption transparency international puts ukraine somewhere between mali and djibouti in terms of perceptions of corruption way down there the only other european country that does badly is russia so there is really a weariness and an anger that things haven't changed fast of the people's lives haven't got better obviously there are still questions whether people will really take that risk where they'll take the jump to vote for someone who doesn't have any political experience and there are also questions about selenski commitment to politics he's been a bit elusive about whether he's willing to slug it out in politics even if you

doesn't win the presidency this time if he's willing say to go into parliament as an m.p. he's not being clear about that and maybe he'll choose if he doesn't win to go back to show business well not in the previous election the incumbent president poroshenko won by a wide margin now he's facing an uphill battle why has his popularity slipped so far. i think last time around it was a bit of an unusual situation the election twenty fourteen came just after russia had annexed the crimea the war in the east it just got going so people really desperate for a safe pair of hands that portion of that was what he was basically selling the voters and they gave him an absolute majority in the first round this time around people are frustrated that their incomes their real incomes are still lower than they were before the war the conflict in the east hasn't been resolved although that's not all in his hands lots of that depends on moscow but i think the sort of overarching theme is is is frustration that things haven't changed as fast and as

revokable as they should have corruption is a big issue in the has still been no major public conviction for corruption knows big figure has had to go to prison or lost their wealth and that is something a lot of people are very unhappy about well part does seem to be campaigning on the issues of security and standing up to russia but how important is this conflict this ongoing conflict in eastern ukraine playing in this election how important is it well the war and you continues people are still dying there and there are over a million refugees within ukraine that have left their homes their studies very prominent people's minds having said that there's very little in the way of concrete steps being proposed is selling himself as yes is the commander in chief the person who can stand up to russia but there's very little in the way of new suggestions of solutions to this conflict and other candidates so it's it's that but it's not being discussed in any great detail all right nick connelly reporting

from kim many thanks indeed. it's. now agencies are stepping up their efforts to help the sick and hungry in flood ravaged mozambique cycle and killed more than seven hundred people in that country and in malawi and zimbabwe when it struck two and a half weeks ago hundreds of thousands were left homeless authorities are warning of the danger of water and borne diseases as they reported a jump in the number of people ill with cholera. areas previously under water now large muddy swamps the receiving floodwaters in mozambique harbor the bodies of many of the missing the threat of disease here is very real. is warry over a spike in the number of color cases in the city of beirut koehler it causes acute diarrhea and can kill within hours if not treated nearly a million vaccines a jew to arrive in the country soon. government and i work as

a wrapping day or if it's to treat those in need teams from around the world are arriving with food clean water and medicine. to go into a very critical phase now which is assistance this is this will be done in feet in five pillars which is foods health water sanitation and also shelter. we also want to make sure that communities they thought capable and conditions we stored their livelihoods so will be with some measurements that we taking like seeds and means for them to work make sure they do get this type of culture is hugely important to mozambique nearly eighty percent of the population depends on us many people not only lost the roof five of the hades bought the harvest to getting their damaged land back in working order as soon he's critical of.

lawyers as on a couple tova has become the first female president of slovakia the country's electoral commission says cutover has fifty eight percent of the votes with nearly all ballots counted up until around an anti corruption platform and promised to bring change to politics in slovakia the political novice is known for her work as an environmental activist her opponent in the runoff poll was meant to shift charge who was backed by the government. a correspondent be out about to go over is covering the story for us in bratislava we asked her why this isn't a capital with election means first of archaea. the senate is an obvious symbolic the excuse doesn't have political experience but surely presents a change that the country desired after the murder of journalist the uncle and his fiancee martina you know that she has so rejected populism and she and b.

are on that a different political culture she's an empire meant our lawyer she's a sort of slovak irene brockovich and she made her trademark in a high profile environmental case she really is a car and a reasonable voice and during her campaign she completely avoid the avoided confrontation she actually defeated a high profile european diplomat chef job the tour around for the ruling party as a ruling party candidate for mayor and the results really showed that the country is ready for a completely new political representation and her rhetoric was that we need to say no to corruption that he's actually growing as far as high quality acts and she also reject the. fascism and she rejected

extremism so she she's one of the book a few positive political stories in the we should around the region where we see popular. and out of cressy really gaining strength. i read some sports news now and in the bonus league dortmund went into matchday twenty seven level on points with biron at the top of the table and faced a tricky match against wolves for this is their chance to get the upper hand ahead of next week's huge clash in munich but it wasn't going to be easy. with marco roy's out to witness the birth of his first child man while a county filled in as dortmund's captain against a high flying vosburgh side finding someone to wear the armband is one thing but replacing royce's clinical finishing is another issue parco outcasts are putting a shot over the whole spirit goal in the nineteenth minute. battle

defensively but rarely look dangerous. i'll take course twenty eighth minute chance was likely their best of the entire match. after that spectacular save a pitch invader kept dortmund keeper roman birky busier than the old spirit attack did. the hosts still looked out of sorts on the other end of the field but something a sixty fourth minute free kick into orbit. frustration mounted among the dortmund faithful as the clock wound down but a minute into stoppage time the spanish forward again stepped up to take a free kick and this time he drove it home by one nil dortmund without cause or sending fans into uproar with the kind of late heroics that dortmund relied on so heavily in the fall. and in the last play of the match jaden censure weave through a weary of all spirit defense to set up for an unorthodox finish his second of the

game. dortmund may have left it late but their two nil win could be vital at season's end. well with dortmund winning title rivals byron had to follow suit but they were held. two a one all draw in freiburg just two minutes were on the clock when an unmarked lucas heard a knot of freiburg in front to shock the reigning champions they didn't hold belief for long as robert lewandowski levelled the scores on twenty two minutes a one hundred ninety nine one does the goal for the pole bond a frustrating draw for buyers. you're watching news coming to you from berlin will leave you now with some images of earth our cities around the world turned off the lights on famous landmarks in a call for global action on climate change america evans dean thanks for the country.

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