September 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on Saturday, in what the Electoral Commission described as “the most peaceful” in the country’s history. By 2:00 p.m. (10:30 a.m. in mainland Spain), turnout had exceeded 60 percent.
The chairman of the Election Commission, RMAL Ratnayake, has stressed that “these elections will go down in history as the most peaceful ever held in Sri Lanka,” according to the Sri Lankan daily ‘The Daily Mirror’. Ratnayake has thus stressed that “no violent incidents have been reported during the voting period.”
The process began at 7:00 a.m. (3:30 a.m. in mainland Spain) and concluded with the closing of the polls at 4:00 p.m. (12:30 p.m. in mainland Spain) and the counting should have already begun. In total, 13,421 voting centres have been set up for the 17,140,354 Sri Lankan citizens included in the census.
Sri Lankan voters will elect their ninth president in this election after Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation led parliament to appoint the then prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, to the post, despite demands from protesters for him to step down due to the severe economic crisis.
Rajapaksa was forced to flee the country in July 2022 and resign amid massive protests against the economic crisis. Now a record 38 candidates are vying for the presidency.
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