Colombo: A nationwide curfew has been imposed in Sri Lanka from 10 pm on Saturday to 6 am tomorrow as a precaution to prevent any untoward incidents as the cash-strapped country held its first presidential election after the 2022 economic crisis, according to police. President Ranil Wickremesinghe issued a gazette imposing the curfew order as the counting of votes is being held.
The curfew announcement came as the counting of votes is being held. The first results are yet to be declared and are expected to be released on Sunday. Director General Elections Saman Sri Ratnayaka announced that the voter turnout in the presidential election is expected to be 75 per cent, which would be lower than the 83 per cent voter turnout recorded in the previous presidential election held in November 2019.
Over 17 million registered voters were expected to vote in the election which had the highest number of candidates with 38 in the fray. The polls were held from 7 am to 4 pm local time at over 13,400 polling stations in 22 electoral districts. The election saw the deployment of nearly 8,000 poll observers local and foreign.
This included 116 international observers from the EU, Commonwealth, and Asian network of elections and seven from the south Asian countries. The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), the leading local group, deployed 4,000 local observers.
Sri Lanka elections: Who are in the fray?
Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75, is seeking re-election for a five-year term as an Independent candidate, riding on the success of his efforts to pull the country out of the economic crisis, which many experts hailed as one of the quickest recoveries in the world. He is facing stiff competition from Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 56, of the National People's Power (NPP), and Sajith Premadasa, 57, of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
Sri Lanka had plunged into an economic crisis when the island nation declared sovereign default in mid-April of 2022, its first since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. Almost civil-war-like conditions and months of public protests led to the fleeing of the then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe was appointed as president by Parliament a week after.
Under Wickremesinghe, the rupee has stabilised, inflation has slowed to near zero from over 70 per cent during the peak of the economic crisis, economic growth has turned to positive from contraction, and government revenue has jumped sharply after new taxes and an increase in value added tax (VAT).
Dissanayake and Premadasa want to tinker with the IMF programme to give more economic relief to the public. Sri Lanka's crisis proved to be an opportunity for Dissanayake, who had seen a surge of support due to his pledge to change the island's "corrupt" political culture.
When will the results be declared?
The results of the election are expected to be released on Sunday. After the counting, if no candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the votes, a second preferential vote count will be conducted. Voters in Sri Lanka elect a single winner by ranking up to three candidates in order of preference.
If a candidate receives an absolute majority, they will be declared the winner. If not, a second round of counting will commence, with second and third-choice votes then taken into account. No election in Sri Lanka has ever progressed to the second round of counting, as single candidates have always emerged as clear winners based on first-preference votes.
(with agency inputs)
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