Ukraine's minister: incumbent and his rival bribe voters

Ukrainian artist Dasha Marchenko adds a chocolate wrapper to her portrait of Ukraine's President and chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko at her studio in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, March 28, 2019. The artist bought around 20 kilograms of chocolate using the wrappers to create his face. The framework was constructed using 4000 gun shells from battlefields in the country’s east that has been hit by conflict with Russia-backed separatists since 2014. Poroshenko is running for the second term as president in elections to be held on March 31. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Cardboard images of presidential candidates Volodymyr Zelensky, foreground, and Yulia Tymoshenko, right, on display in central Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, March 28, 2019. Ukraine will hold presidential elections on March 31. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Ukraine's interior minister has accused the incumbent president and a former premier of waging campaigns that involve bribing voters ahead of Sunday's presidential vote.

In a statement issued late Thursday, Arsen Avakov said that his ministry is looking into hundreds of claims that campaigners for President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko were offering money to voters who would promise to cast a ballot for their candidate.

He noted that about 60 percent of complaints about bribes refer to Poroshenko's campaign, and Tymoshenko's campaign accounts for the rest. Both campaigns have repeatedly denied the accusations.

Opinion polls show Poroshenko and Tymoshenko trailing comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who stars in a TV series about a teacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral.