After Zelenskiy voted, he told journalists that he believes the head of the government should be a professional economist, who has not been involved with the government or politics.
From our Kyiv correspondent Christopher Miller. He’s on Twitter at @ChristopherJM
A polling station inside School No. 44 in central Kyiv was buzzing with voters who waited in line to cast their ballots. Monitor Arkady Dryuker said it had been busy since opening at 8 a.m. with only one slight disturbance when a person began agitating for one of the parties, which he declined to name. He said the person was quickly ushered away.
Many people there said they were ticking the party list box for Servant Of The People, the party of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. A pensioner who shared the first name of the president and cast his ballot for his party said his decision was based on the fact that he felt hopeful about politics in Ukraine for the first time in a while. He said he voted for Petro Poroshenko and his party in 2014 but was disappointed by their performances. A younger woman named Iryna said she was voting for the Voice party because she thought they had the most qualified candidates who were also “new faces.”
At another school in Kyiv’s Podil region, Valentyna and her daughter Nadezhda said they voted for Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party because they believe he set the country on a European course and were pleased with the results of his presidency. Valentyna said she liked Poroshenko “because he is a real politician” and members of his party have “political experience” needed to govern. Zelesnkiy, Nadezhda said, is “unprofessional.”
“He’s a comedian...and we need serious people” leading the country, she said.
Also at the polling station, Viktor Buryazuk and Olena Ivanenko said they voted for Servant of the People out of loyalty to Zelesnkiy. “We see hope in Zelenskiy...we want change,” Ivanenko said.
They also voted for Serhiy Leshchenko, a member of parliament running for reelection but who was forced to do so in the single-mandate district there after not being allowed onto the Servant party list. Leshchenko is among the two dozen or so lawmakers known as Euro-Optimists who were elected in 2014 but have struggled to find their place in politics since.
President Zelenskiy voting...
Um, not sure what's happening here...
From our Current Time TV network. Tymoshenko has voted:
From our Kyiv correspondent Christopher Miller. He’s on Twitter at @ChristopherJM
The weather is great for today's election but that may not translate to a high voter turnout. Experts predict turnout will be lower than the presidential elections in March and April when 62 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. The 2014 parliamentary elections saw 52 percent voter turnout. Low voter turnout may bode poorly for parties filled with new faces, such as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's Servant of the People and singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's Voice. But it could help establishment parties like those of former President Petro Poroshenko (European Solidarity) and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (Fatherland), who have smaller but arguably more devout followings.
Just two hours into voting, Ukraine's National Police and Central Election Commission have reported several violations. Eight polling stations did not open on time due to technicalities, such as disputes between local officials, or fraud in one case.
In Bakhmut, a city that butts up against the front line of the war in eastern Ukraine, a polling station was closed after its official observers were found to have already fixed the results sheet in the local district race. Police said they tried to hide the fix by dumping ink over the documents.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg is inside a Ukrainian polling station: