The Ukrainian presidential election may at first glance, appear to signal democratic erosion. Especially when compared to the United States 2016 election. One of the candidates, Volodymyr Zelensky is similar to candidate Trump in the American elections in experience level and star quality. Zelensky is a relatively well-known actor known for playing a Ukrainian president on a sitcom. He has used this sitcom for a lot of his presidential advertisements, “People want to see a president like [his character in the show] with the same moral values.” But the people are not learning much about him or his policies, as he has stuck to script a lot with his central campaign focus being anti-corruption. Zelensky has been accused of being Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky’s puppet. The other candidate, Petro Poroshenko is the incumbent, a man whose policies are about decreasing Russian influence and “westernizing” Ukraine. He has been accused of co-opting his party’s modernist agenda for an aggressively anti-Russia slate. The original election did not result in a conclusive winner, so this Sunday (April 21) the runoff election will be held, where it looks like Zelensky will be the winner.
 An integral part of both campaigns is that the other candidate spells doom for Ukraine. Poroshenko tells his supporters, “Don’t lose this country,” implying that Zelensky will be Ukraine’s demise. As the incumbent, this kind of rhetoric could demonstrate the norm of mutual toleration eroding. Mutual toleration is defined as “the idea that as long as our rivals play by constitutional rules…they have an equal right to exist, compete for power, and govern,” (Levitsky and Giblatt). Poroshenko’s rhetoric could show an erosion of this norm, but this does not seem to be affecting the democratic institutions too dramatically. There does not seem to be a pressing worry about whether Poroshenko will accept the results. So while the language of the campaign may seem worrisome at first glance, a deeper look into the history of democracy in Ukraine does not indicate a troubled transfer of power.
 On the other hand, Poroshenko’s presidency has not been very conducive to democracy. Instead of keeping with the traditional presidential/premier system, Poroshenko has consolidated power to implement his pro-West & anti-Russia strategy. Instead of directly thwarting the constitution, he uses strong informal power to gain favor (Averchuk). Other articles claim the same, stating that corruption is rampant inside the Poroshenko’s government. Regardless of whether this is true, very few Ukrainians trust Poroshenko and hope Zelensky can bring about change and reform.
Overall, though this election may seem like democratic norms and institutions are eroding in Ukraine, I believe this election and campaign show the opposite. The Ukrainian people are dissatisfied with their current president and though they may not think highly of Zelensky, they have faith in their country and their democracy.
 A well known anti-corruption activist, Artem Romanyukov, optimistically says, “In the worst-case scenario, we’ll simply replace one oligarch with another. This is bad, but not a catastrophe given the current context.”