21 September,2024 07:18 AM IST | Columbus | Agencies
President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his wife Maithree Wickremesinghe show their ink-marked finger after casting their vote in Colombo. Pic/PTI
Polling concluded in Sri Lanka on Saturday with no violence or security breaches reported anywhere from all 22 electoral districts in the crucial presidential elections, the island nation's first since its worst economic meltdown in 2022. The election officials said everyone who had entered the polling station by 4 pm was allowed to vote beyond the deadline. Officials are yet to release the final voting percentage. By 2 pm, more than 60 per cent of the 17 million eligible people had voted, they said.
Observers said voting in the northern district of Jaffna 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 voting was conducted four days earlier.
"After postal votes are counted, at 6 pm, we would like to start normal counting" Colombo City Deputy Election Commissioner MKSKK Bandaramapa said earlier in the day. The election saw the deployment of nearly 8,000 polls observers local and foreign. This included 116 international observers from the EU, Commonwealth, Asian network of elections and seven from the south Asian countries.
The People's Action for Free and Fair Elections, the leading local group, deployed 4,000 local observers. The election will be a test for incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe who has claimed credit for putting the country on the road to economic recovery.
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