KIEV (Reuters) - Comic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pulled further ahead as the frontrunner in Ukraine's presidential election race, according to an opinion poll published on Monday.
A survey conducted by the non-government Rating Group showed the 41-year-old political novice had the support of 25.1 percent of voters.
Incumbent Petro Poroshenko had 16.6 percent support and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko had 16.2 percent.
The election takes place on March 31, with 44 candidates having entered the race. If no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, as polls predict, the top two candidates will face each other in a run-off on April 21.
The Rating Group said it had interviewed 2,500 voters in all regions except in the annexed Crimea, from Feb. 19 to Feb 28.
Earlier polls also put Zelenskiy in first place.
Following is a table showing the percentage support for leading candidates among voters planning to take part in the election in four recent polls:
Rating SOCIS Razumkov KIIS
Group centre
Feb. 19-28 Feb. 8-18 Feb. 7-14 Feb. 8-20
Volodymyr 25.1 19.1 17.5 15.4
Zelenskiy
Petro 16.6 14.9 13.1 10.5
Poroshenko
Yulia 16.2 12.3 11.5 8.0
Tymoshenko
Yuriy 11.3 8.3 6.3 6.3
Boyko
ADVERTISEMENTAnatoly 7.7 5.3 5.9 3.7
Hrytsenko
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; editing by Matthias Williams)