Voting Of The Seventh Presidential Elections In The Country Commenced

Around 1.5 million Sri Lankan voters are eligible to cast their vote in the Seventh Presidential Elections began 7 a.m today(08) .The voters are to cast their votes at 12,314 polling stations situated throughout the island from 7 a.m to 4 p.m today  the Elections Secretariat has announced.

A total of 1,50,44,490 voters are eligible to cast their votes during this election where 19 candidates including two independent candidates are contesting .Current President  Mahinda Rajapaksha and former Health Minister of this government and former general secretary  of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party Maithripala Sirisena who is the common presidential candidate of the New Democratic Front formed by main opposition parties in the country are the main contenders in this election.

Around 71,000 Police Personal are deployed at polling stations situated island wide to provide security.

As the current President Mahinda Rajapaksha has requested the elections commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya on 20th of november 2014  to conduct a presidential elections  elections commissioner has called nominations for the elections on 08th of December where 17 political parties and 2 independent groups were handed over nominations of their candidates.

The Postal Voting was conducted late December and last week for the public sector employees who were applied for postal votes.

According to the Elections Secretariat the first elections result is due to be released early tomorrow(09) and the final result by tomorrow evening.

The Elections Commissioner has decided to stop counting the votes of those polling stations facing threats of groups and politicians with immediate effect.

Fifty Five member International Political Observers Panel is currently also here to monitor this presidential Elections.