THE voter turnout in the Sri Lanka presidential election on Saturday is expected to be 75 per cent,” Director General Elections Saman Sri Ratnayaka declared. Sri Lankans voted to elect a new President in the first elections since the economic meltdown in 2022. An overnight curfew was declared islandwide hours after polling ended and counting started immediately. Polling from 7 am to 4 pm went off peacefully with no violence or any security breach reported from anywhere across the 22 electoral districts. This would be lower than the 83 per cent polled in the previous presidential election held in November 2019. Hours after counting of votes began soon after polling ended at 4 pm,the entire country was put under curfew from 10 pm till 6 am on Sunday to “prevent anyuntoward incidents post-election,” the police said.

 

The polls were held from 7 am to4pm local time at over 13,400 polling stations at22electoraldistricts inthe electionwhichhadthehighest number of candidates, 38,butnofemaleaspirantfor the top post. The elections are crucial for incumbent President RanilWickremesinghe, who is seeking re-election as an independent claiming credit for putting the country on the road to economic recovery. Observers said voting in thenortherndistrictofJaffna was on a slow trickle by mid day. A Tamil minority hardline group had discouraged people from voting in the run up to the election. The counting of postal votes commenced immediately after the voting closed at 4 pm, officials said. Postal votes were cast by government employees, mostly election officials, military and police.

 

The postal votingwasconductedfourdays earlier. The election saw the deployment of nearly 8,000 pollsobserverslocalandforeign.Thisincluded116international observers from the EU, Commonwealth, Asian networkofelectionsandseven from the south Asian countries. The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), the leadinglocalgroup,deployed 4,000 local observers. Buddhist temple halls, schoolsandcommunitycentres were converted into polling stations. The threecorneredelectoralbattlesaw Wickremesinghe, 75, facing stiffcompetitionfromAnura Kumara Dissanayake, 56, of the National People’s Power (NPP),andSajithPremadasa, 57, of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the main Opposition leader.