COLOMBO – Voters in Sri Lanka began casting their ballots Saturday to elect their new president. Polling stations opened at 7:00 AM local time (1:30 AM GMT) for the 17 million registered voters and will close at 4:00 PM (10:30 AM GMT), with results expected as early as Sunday, according to media reports.
Among the 39 candidates, the three salient names include the incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, 75, who has led the country since 2022. Moreover, the leader of the leftist coalition, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, 55, who heads the Marxist-inspired Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), known for two deadly armed insurrections in the early 1970s and late 1980s. He received only 3% of the votes in the 2019 presidential election. Additionally, the opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, 57, is also expected to garner significant support from dissatisfied voters.
If none of the candidates surpasses the 50% vote threshold, the electoral commission will resolve the matter by counting the second or third preferences of voters.
