More than 13,000 polling stations open in Sri Lanka for presidential elections

September 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Polling stations opened this Saturday at 7:00 a.m. (local time) for the presidential election in Sri Lanka, the first since Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory in November 2019, who was forced to flee the country and resign in July 2022 amid massive protests against the economic crisis.

In total, 13,421 polling stations have been set up and will remain open until 4pm (local time) to allow the more than 17 million Sri Lankans called to the polls to cast their votes, the Daily Mirror reported.

Sri Lankan voters will elect their ninth president in this election after 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 has given in after months of protests over rising prices, food shortages, medicines and fuel, which have left the small Asian island facing its worst economic crisis since it gained independence from British colonial rule. This has marked the downfall of the Rajapaksa family, after Gotabaya forced his brother Mahinda to step down as prime minister in early May in an attempt to end the protests.

The new government has initiated contacts with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to address the situation, after which the organization approved in 2023 the delivery of some 3 billion dollars (around 2.765 billion euros) to support a package of reforms in the country.

Wickremesinghe is now one of three front-runners out of 38 candidates running for the post, alongside current parliamentary opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and leader of the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party, Anura Kumara.

The first results are expected at 11:00 p.m., although the final data will not be known until Sunday.