Early results in Ukraine’s presidential election show a comedian with no political experience maintaining his strong lead against the incumbent president in the first round, setting the stage for a runoff in three weeks.

With just over half of the polling stations counted on Monday, Volodomyr Zelenskiy had 30.2 % of the vote, while incumbent President Petro Poroshenko was a distant second with about 16.6 %. Ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko trailed behind with 13 %. The results were in sync with a top exit poll.

The strong showing of Mr. Zelenskiy reflects the public longing for a fresh leader who has no links to the corruption-ridden Ukrainian political elite and can offer a new approach to settling the grinding conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.