Officially estimated voter turnout in Sri Lanka's presidential election is 75 percent | World News

Elections Director General Saman Sri Ratnayaka said voter turnout in the presidential election was expected to be 75 percent, lower than the 83 percent turnout in the last presidential election in November 2019.

The elections took place from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time in over 13,400 polling stations in 22 constituencies.

Over 17 million registered voters were expected to participate in this election, which featured the highest number of candidates with 38.

Voting had previously ended without any reports of violence or security breaches in any of the 22 constituencies in the crucial presidential election, the island nation's first since its worst economic collapse in 2022.

The election officials explained that anyone who entered the polling station by 4 p.m. could cast their vote beyond the deadline.

The counting of postal votes began immediately after the polls closed at 4 p.m., officials said.

The postal vote was conducted by government employees, mainly election officials, military personnel and police officers. The postal vote took place four days earlier.

After the postal votes are counted, “we would like to start the normal counting at 6 p.m.,” said Colombo City Deputy Election Commissioner MKSKK Bandaramapa earlier in the day.

Nearly 8,000 domestic and foreign election observers were deployed during the elections, including 116 international observers from the EU, the Commonwealth, the Asian Election Network and seven from South Asian countries.

The leading local group, People's Action for Free and Fair Elections, sent 4,000 local observers.

The election will be a test for incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who claims to have put the country on the path to economic recovery.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications.