Despite much enthusiasm, the Presidential election polling concluded yesterday evening with the turnout estimated to be around 77 percent falling short of the high turnout of 83.7 percent recorded at the 2019 Presidential election.
Elections Commissioner General Saman Sri Ratnayake said that the election was conducted without any disruptions and it was held peacefully without any major incidents being reported.
Thirty-eight candidates contested this year’s Presidential election.
The top contenders of the election were the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe as an Independent candidate, the Opposition Leader Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa, left-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party -led Jathika Jana Balawegaya (National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna candidate Namal Rajapaksa.
These candidates will get to know whether the people focused on the economy as this election was the first Presidential election to be held since the country’s economic meltdown in 2022.
The polling for the Presidential election concluded peacefully at 4 pm yesterday. People voted at 13, 314 polling stations set up by the National Election Commission across 22 electoral districts, encompassing 160 polling divisions, with over 17 million registered voters to cast their ballots. More than 150,000 public officials were deployed for the election.
After the conclusion of voting, the ballot boxes were transported to counting the centres in each district and the counting of votes began with the postal votes being counted first, Election Secretariat officials said.
Police Spokesperson DIG and Attorney-at-Law Nihal Talduwa said that over 63,000 police officers were deployed for election duties to ensure the safety and integrity of the election process,. Personnel from the three armed forces were also deployed at key security locations.
