Voting for Sri Lanka's presidential election concludes peacefully

COLOMBO:Voting for the presidential election in Sri Lanka concluded peacefully on Saturday afternoon, with the counting of the votes being expected to begin.

Voting started at 7 a.m. local time on Saturday and officially ended at 4 p.m. on the same day at over 13,000 polling stations being set up for the election.

A comprehensive security arrangement was established across the country, with about 63,000 police officers being assigned to election duties to ensure a smooth and secure voting process, according to local media reports.

Over 17 million people are eligible to vote in the presidential election, and it was reported that the overall voter turnout by 2 p.m. exceeded 60 percent.

A total of 38 candidates contest in this year's presidential election, including incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa of the opposition Samagi Jana Balawega, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People's Power.

A candidate needs more than 50 percent of the votes to win the election. If no candidate obtains such a majority, it could lead to a second round of vote counting, where the second or third preferences of voters are counted for the top two candidates.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who won the presidential election in November 2019, resigned from the post in July 2022 amid a severe economic crisis in the South Asian country.

Wickremesinghe was elected president in an election held in parliament following Rajapaksa's resignation.

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