The 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections were held on 31 March and 21 April in the two-round system. There were a total of 39 candidates for the election on the ballot. The 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia and the occupation of parts of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast prevented around 12% of eligible voters from participating in the election. As no candidate received an absolute majority of the vote, a second round was held between the top two candidates, Volodymyr Zelensky and the incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko, on 21 April 2019. According to preliminary results from the Central Election Commission, Zelensky won the second round with about 73.23% of the votes.
According to Ukrainian law, the election of the President of Ukraine must take place on the last Sunday of March of the fifth year of the term of the incumbent President. Thus the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election should take place on 31 March 2019. The Ukrainian parliament had to approve the date of the presidential election no later than 100 days before the election day. On 26 November 2018 the parliament set the presidential vote for 31 March 2019. 34,544,993 people were eligible to vote in the elections. However, the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia and the occupation of parts of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast by separatists (since April 2014) made roughly 12% of eligible voters unable to participate in the elections. The Ukrainian Central Election Commission closed all five foreign polling stations in Russia ahead of the vote.
Analysis of candidates by the Ukrainian NGO "Chesno" found that Petro Poroshenko had the largest election fund (415 million Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH), about $15.4 million), followed by Yulia Tymoshenko with UAH 320 million and Volodymyr Zelensky with UAH 102.8 million and Serhiy Taruta with UAH 98.4 million. By comparison, in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, then winner Viktor Yanukovych spent over $40 million and runner-up Yulia Tymoshenko spent $36 million. A total of 2,344 international observers from 17 countries and 19 organizations were officially registered to monitor the elections. A record number of 139 non-governmental Ukrainian organizations are registered as observers.
With a voter turnout of 62.8%, about 18.9 million people voted in the first round of elections on 31 March. Volodymyr Zelensky of the Servant of the People and the incumbent President Petro Poroshenko both advanced to the second round of elections on 21 April. In the first round, Zelensky earned 30% of the votes compared to Poroshenko's 16%. Exit polls during the second round of voting predicted that Zelensky will win with more than 70% of the votes. With only 3% of the votes counted, the CEC confirmed similar preliminary results. Poroshenko conceded the results of the election in a speech soon after the polls closed and exit-poll data was released. He wrote on Twitter: "We succeeded to ensure free, fair, democratic and competitive elections... I will accept the will of Ukrainian people." According to the CEC, preliminary results with about 99.27% of the votes counted indicates that Zelensky received about 73.19% of the votes to the incumbent president's 24.48%.
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