Sri Lanka 2024 Elections LIVE: ‘Every vote matters’, says Presidential candidate Namal Rajapaksa

Saturday is a rest day for the ongoing Sri Lanka-New Zealand Test match due to the presidential election in Sri Lanka. On Friday, which was day 3, the hosts lost some of their momentum to reach 237-4 at stumps in Galle.

It is the first time that a Test has accommodated such a break since 2008 when Bangladesh hosted Sri Lanka.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe charted a path for Sri Lanka out of its worst financial crisis in decades, but the austerity measures that were key to this recovery may hinder his bid to return to his job in Saturday’s presidential election.

The South Asian island nation’s economy went into free fall two years ago after it ran into a severe dollar crisis, sending its currency and markets crashing and pushing it into its first debt default in history.

Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, was elected by parliament to become president in 2022 after mass protests triggered by the crisis in ousted his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to flee the country and later resign.

By 10:00 a.m., the Election Commission of Sri Lanka said that it had received 85 complaints regarding electoral breaches pertaining to the country’s 2024 presidential election.

In a statement, the Sri Lanka Election Commission stated that it will carefully consider each allegation in order to guarantee impartiality and openness throughout the voting process.

Millions of Sri Lankans are casting their votes on Saturday in the crucial presidential election — the island nation’s first major electoral exercise since its worst economic meltdown in 2022.

The election will be a test for President Ranil Wickremesinghe who has claimed credit for putting the country on the road to recovery.

Analysts said this election is the most keenly contested of all presidential elections since 1982 with 38 candidates in the fray.

Some 17 million people are eligible to vote at over 13,400 polling stations. Over 200,000 officials have been deployed to conduct the election which will be guarded by 63,000 police personnel. Voting started at 7 am and will continue till 4 pm. Results are expected by Sunday.

VIDEO | Sri Lanka presidential election 2024: "At 4 pm, we will try to start postal vote counting and 6 pm we would like to start normal counting. All the election management system are okay. There are no incidents in Colombo district. 27 per cent voters have cast their vote.… pic.twitter.com/Ml7G2tCYc4

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 21, 2024

Namal Rajapaksa, the presidential candidate and son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, cast his vote in the 2024 Sri Lankan presidential election.

He also encouraged citizens to do the same, emphasising that every vote counts for the future of Sri Lanka. Namal Rajapaksa, representing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, is one of the prominent candidates, alongside incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa.

Sharing a post on X, Rajapaksa wrote, “We just cast our votes! Your turn now–get out there and make your voice heard. Every vote matters for the future of Sri Lanka! #GoVote.”

Millions of Sri Lankans were casting their votes on Saturday to elect a president who will face the task of bolstering the South Asian country’s fragile economic recovery following its worst financial crisis in decades.

More than 17 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are eligible to vote in an election that has shaped up to be a close contest between President Ranil Wickremesinghe, main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist-leaning challenger Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who led in one recent opinion poll.

Women make up more than half of the voters in Sri Lanka, but not a single one will be on the ballot in Saturday’s presidential election.

The island nation of more than 22 million people is voting for a president to take its economy forward after it went through an unprecedented financial crisis two years ago that led to the ouster of its head of government.

The election will allow more than 17 million eligible voters to choose from a record 38 candidates. But women — who account for nearly 9 million voters — will have no gender representation.

People wait in a queue to vote at a polling station during the presidential election in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Reuters

Sri Lanka is holding its first presidential elections since the 2022 mass protests over the economic crisis that led to the fall of the Rajapaksa clan. All eyes are on how people in the Indian Ocean island will vote on Saturday (September 21).

India, Sri Lanka’s neighbour, is among those keenly watching the presidential election. The results of these polls could change New Delhi’s relations with Colombo.

Here’s why Sri Lanka’s presidential election matters to India.

People stand in a queue at a polling station to vote during the presidential election in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Reuters

#WATCH | Colombo, Sri Lanka: A voter says, "Whoever comes they should think about the country and the people who live here...Everyone has the hope that the person who is going to take charge will do something for the people here...Let's hope for the best..."

(Source: Reuters) https://t.co/vFVUUJTQvZ pic.twitter.com/sfP4rF6u8T

— ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2024

A security personnel checks documents of a voter at a polling station during the presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Reuters

Scarred by a decades-long civil war and struggling to survive in Sri Lanka’s crippled economy, ethnic minority Tamils in the island nation say they have little hope that Saturday’s presidential election will improve their lot by much.

Tamils form 12 per cent of the country’s 22 million population, but have long been electorally sidelined, as most candidates belong to the majority Sinhala population and many Tamils say they have no hope of a better future from those candidates.

Millions of Sri Lankans were casting their votes on Saturday to select a president who will face the task of bolstering the South Asian country’s fragile economic recovery following its worst financial crisis in decades.

More than 17 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are eligible to vote in an election that has shaped up to be a close contest between President Ranil Wickremesinghe, main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist-leaning challenger Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who led in one recent opinion poll.

Tamils form 12% of the country’s 22 million population, but have long been electorally sidelined, as most candidates belong to the majority Sinhala population and many Tamils say they have no hope of a better future from those candidates.

A 26-year civil war between Tamil insurgents, who wanted a separate Tamil nation in the north and east of the country, and government forces ended in 2009. Rights groups accuse both sides of abuses during the conflict in which 40,000 people died, according to U.N. estimates.

Polls opened in Sri Lanka’s presidential vote on Saturday, AFP journalists saw, marking the island nation’s first election since an unprecedented economic crisis two years ago.

Voting booths will close at 4:00 pm with President Ranil Wickremesinghe facing an uphill battle to retain office after implementing unpopular austerity measures.

Voting begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m., with counting scheduled to start shortly after.

Sri Lanka’s ranked voting system allows voters to cast three preferential votes for their chosen candidates, with any candidate securing 50% of the votes plus one, being declared winner. If no candidate wins 50% in the first round there is a second round of counting between the two frontrunners, with the preferential votes of other candidates redistributed, an outcome analysts say is likely given the close nature of the election.

The Election Commission will formally announce the winner, probably on Sunday.

By all reckoning, Saturday’s (September 21) presidential poll in the Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka promises to be ‘historic’. The general focus is all about the presence or dominance of three frontrunners in place of the traditional two. But there is more to it than meets the eye—rather, more than what people want to see and hence are witnessing.

Sri Lanka’s presidential elections are around the corner. The lineup for these polls feature many familiar faces, some even hailing from the country’s most prominent political families: Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa; Sajith Premadasa, the son of another former president, R Premadasa; and incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, a nephew of the country’s first executive President JR Jayewardene.

However, in this busy club of familiar faces, one stands out. That of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party and head of the alliance named as National People’s Power.

Sri Lanka is set to vote for their next president on (September 21)  in an election that is being closely watched by the world. The polls also come at a time when the island nation is rebuilding its economy after the economic crisis in 2022.

As the country prepares to vote, let us take a look at the key issues that are plaguing the country.

Sri Lanka is gearing up for a crucial presidential election on Saturday, marking the island nation’s first major poll since its worst economic meltdown in 2022.

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.

Though Wickremesinghe’s recovery plan tied to rigid reforms linked to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out was hardly popular, it has helped Sri Lanka recover from successive quarters of negative growth.

“I will make sure that I end the country’s bankruptcy by going ahead with the reforms we introduced,” Wickremesinghe told an election rally on Wednesday night.

The three-cornered electoral battle will see Wickremesinghe 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) and the main Opposition leader.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake may lack the political lineage of some of his rivals, but his leftist policies to help the poor and stirring speeches have made him a leading candidate in Sri Lanka’s presidential election on Saturday.

Although Dissanayake’s Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna (JVP) party has just three seats in parliament, the 55-year-old candidate has been boosted by his promises of tough anti-corruption measures and bigger welfare schemes.

An opinion poll published this month showed Dissanayake, popularly known as AKD, was leading in voting preferences at 36%, followed by main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and President Ranil Wickremesinghe at third.

Millions of Sri Lankans cast their votes on Saturday to select a new president who will face the task of cementing the South Asian country’s fragile economic recovery following its worst financial crisis in decades.

More than 17 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are eligible to vote in the presidential election that has shaped up to be a close contest between incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist-leaning challenger Anura Kumara Dissanayake.