Election results by Sunday or latest Monday

By Sandun A. Jayasekera

The winner of today’s presidential election will be known on Sunday if he or she secures at least 50% + one votes in the first round of counting, Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said yesterday. 

He said if otherwise the results could be delayed until Monday because of the need to count the second preferences.   

The voting to elect the 7th executive president of Sri Lanka will be held from 7.00 am to 5.00 pm at 12,845 polling stations countrywide with 15,992,096 including 659,030 postal voters eligible to vote at this election.   

In a nutshell, there is no big difference or conflict in policy and work programme of the three main candidates.   

Sajith Premadasa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake have pledged to introduce a new era with hopes of peace, prosperity and harmony to all Sri Lankans during the next five years in the event of winning the presidential election.   

The winner of today’s presidential election will be known on Sunday if  he or she secures at least 50% + one votes in the first round of  counting

Mr. Deshapriya said they have set up 1,550 counting centres including 371 centres to count postal votes with some 300,000 public servants deployed for election duty.   
He said all precautionary measures have been taken to prevent election-related violence and election law violations so as to conduct a free and fair election.   

 One of the disturbing and unhealthy trends witnessed during this presidential election propaganda campaign was the extremely partisan and bias stand taken by a handful of TV and social media outlets and newspapers promoting a particular candidate while blocking out the others and abusing all known journalistic and media ethics and guidelines.   
Mr. Deshapriya said he would take legal action against eight print and electronic media institutions after the elections on account of the serious violation of election law and the guidelines issued by the EC. 

• all precautionary measures have been taken to prevent election-related  violence and election law violations so as to conduct a free and fair  election