The presidential election is to be held in Ukraine on Sunday, March 31.

A record number of candidates are on the ballot — 39. There were 44 candidates initially, but the Central Election Commission (CEC) removed five candidates at their request during the last week before the deadline for leaving the race.

The first candidate to drop out of the race was First Deputy Commander of the Special Operations Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Serhiy Kryvonos, who withdrew his candidacy in favor of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and was subsequently appointed Deputy Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC). Lviv Mayor, Samopomich Party leader and Member of Parliament Andriy Sadovy, MP Dmytro Dobrodomov and journalist Dmytro Gnap withdrew their candidacies in favor of Civil Position Party leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko. Nashi (Ours) Party leader Yevhen Murayev withdrew in favor of Opposition Bloc leader Oleksandr Vilkul.

On March 18, Osnova Party leader Serhiy Taruta withdrew from the race in favor of Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko. And on March 27, ex-Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz announced his withdrawal from the race. The names of both ex-candidates, however, will be included in the voting ballot.

Some 199 election districts (approximately 29,888 polling places) have been created for conducting the election. As of March 30, voting lists included 29,789,643 voters. The Ukraina Printing House printed 30,441,372 ballots for the March 31, 2019 election at the CEC's direction.

There could have been 223 election districts, but none was created in Russia-occupied Crimea and Russia-occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In Donetsk region's Ukrainian-controlled areas, there are 12 elections districts (for approximately 1,435,688 voters), and in Luhansk region there are six election districts (for approximately 534,951 voters).

Voters through March 25 were able to change their permanent place of voting without changing their voting address. In addition to requesting same, voters were required to present to state voting registrars documents confirming the necessity of changing their place of voting. Some 315,725 Ukrainians (compared to 171,078 in the 2014 presidential election) availed themselves of the opportunity.

Residents of Crimea, Sevastopol and Russia-occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions could have motivated requests to change their voting address because of Russia-led military aggression resulting in the temporary occupation of areas of Ukraine. They were not required to present documents confirming the necessity of changing their place of voting.

Some 101 polling places have been created abroad. They are located in Ukraine's embassies and consulates. Most are in Germany — 5, there are four polling places are in the United States, Poland, Italy each and three in Canada, Spain and Turkey. The CEC has sent 424,341 voting ballots to the polling places outside of Ukraine.

Citizens of Ukraine will not be able to vote in Russia because the CEC at the end of 2018 closed all five foreign polling stations in Russia which had been created in 2012 to function on a permanent basis. These polling places have been moved to Ukrainian embassies in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Finland.

The CEC, at the request of Ukraine's Defense Ministry, has created a special list of 80 polling stations located at military units: 65  in Donetsk region, 14 in Luhansk region, and one in Lviv region. It is expected that about 47,000 Ukrainian military servicemen serving in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area will be able to vote at special polling stations.

According to the law, presidential elections are conducted in two rounds. If in the first round of voting on March 31 one of the candidates garners more than 50% of votes cast in the election, he or she is declared the winner. If that does not happen, a second round of voting on April 21 will take place between the two candidates receiving the most votes in the first round.

Some 2,344 official international observers have been registered from 19 international organizations (2,157) and 17 countries (187) to monitor the election. The CEC refused to allow observers from the Russian Federation.

The largest contingent of international election observers is from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) – 808, with another 373 from the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), 219 from the Ukrainian World Congress, 164 from the nongovernmental organization CANADEM, 118 from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and 83 from the National Democratic Institute. Among delegations from foreign governments, 63 are from the United States, 40 from Poland, 16 from Slovakia, 15 from France, and 13 from Germany.

There are 89,622 observers from nongovernment organizations. The largest group is from the Ukrainian Center of Democratic Society (founded by Ivan Dobrovolsky and Yuriy Hoida) — 30,264, Ze!Team will be represented by 14,426 observers, all-Ukrainian public organization Solidarna Molod by 8,576, and NGO Leading Legal Initiatives by 6,015.

Some 4,140 observers are registered from the Civil Network OPORA, 2,952 from Vitali Klitschko's UDAR, 2,399 from the Women of Batkivshchyna, 1,853 — Committee of Voters of Ukraine, 867 from all-Ukrainian association Ours, 853 from the Servant of People organization, and 369 —from the National Druzhynas.

The elections will be observed by 53,917 official observers from presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko, 36,483 observers from Yulia Tymoshenko, 23,505 from Oleh Liashko, 20,862 from Anatoliy Hrytsenko, 13,454 from Yuriy Boiko, 12,097 from Oleksandr Vilkul, 10,193 from Ruslan Koshulynsky, 2,969 from Yulia Lytvynenko, 2,286 from Oleksandr Shevchenko. There will be 1,607 observers from Volodymyr Zelensky.

In addition, registered were 19,779 official observers from the Batkivschyna Party, 1,199 from the Opposition Bloc — the Peace and Development Party, 645 from the Radical Party, 629 from the Civil Position Party, and 292 from the Svoboda Party.

The CEC has accredited 1,149 journalists from 192 media organizations for the elections. Some 24 are from print publications, 21 from information agencies, 20 — television channels, 7 — television and radio companies and two Ukrainian radio stations, and 10 Ukrainian Internet media outlets, which will be represented by 804 journalists.

According to polling results by sociological companies, showman and head of the Studio Kvartal 95 Volodymyr Zelensky, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko have the best chances of reaching the second round of voting. They are followed by Civil Position Party leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko and Opposition Platform — For Life leader Yuriy Boiko.

The National Exit Poll — 2019 consortium of Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) and the Razumkov Centre of Economic and Political Research will conduct at national exit poll on the day of elections.

112 Ukraine and NewsOne will conduct an all-Ukrainian exit poll with the SORA Institute of Social Research and Consulting (Austria) and the Ukrainian Social Monitoring center.

Their results will be released after the close of polling stations at 18.00 (Kyiv time).

District territorial commissions must, by April 5, inclusively, establish the results of voting within territorial election districts.

Within 10 days from the voting day (until April 10, inclusive), the CEC must establish the election results and draw up a corresponding protocol. If none of the candidates gains more than 50% of the votes, the CEC applies to the Verkhovna Rada with the proposal for holding a second round of presidential elections on the third Sunday after election day (April 21).