Zelensky has a commanding lead at presidential election - National Exit Poll

Showman Volodymyr Zelensky leads in Ukraine's presidential election with 30.4% of the vote, followed by incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with 17.8% and Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko with 14.2%, according to the results of the National Exit Poll as of 18:00. The results of the National Exit Poll conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation were announced at a press conference at Ukrinform on March 31.

According to the poll, Yuriy Boiko collected 9.8% of the vote, Anatoliy Hrytsenko - 7.1%, Ihor Smeshko - 6.4%, Oleh Liashko - 4.8%, Oleksandr Vilkul - 4%, and Ruslan Koshulynsky - 1.8%.

Other candidates got less than 1% of the vote.

The exit poll was attended by voters who voted in the presidential election in Ukraine (except for special polling stations - hospitals, prisons, military units), except for occupied territories.

The sample is representative for Ukraine as a whole and for its four regions (west, center, east and south). About 17 000 respondents were interviewed at 400 polling stations. Two or three interviewers worked at every polling station, about a thousand of them were attracted. They applied the method of "secret voting". The poll's margin of error does not exceed 2.5% for leaders and ranges at 0.5-1% for other candidates, - the report said.