Sri Lanka Presidential Elections: Curfew declared as soon as the presidential elections ended in Sri Lanka, know why this decision was taken during the counting of votes?

India News, Sri Lanka Presidential Elections: A sudden curfew has been imposed in Sri Lanka after the presidential election ended. This has created a stir in the whole country. In fact, as a precaution to prevent any untoward incident after the presidential election, a curfew was imposed in Sri Lanka from 10 pm on Saturday night (21 September 2024) to 6 am on Sunday (22 September). Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has issued a gazette and implemented the curfew order. At the same time, the curfew has been announced at a time when the counting of votes is going on. The first results have not been declared yet. According to an official, about 75 percent voter turnout is expected in the presidential election.

How much voting took place this time

Let us tell you that, Sri Lankan Election Director General Saman Sri Ratnayaka has announced that 75 percent voting is expected in the presidential election. Which will be less than the 83 percent voting recorded in the last presidential election held in November 2019. Voting took place from 7 am to 4 pm local time at more than 13,400 polling stations in 22 electoral districts in Sri Lanka. At the same time, more than 17 million registered voters were expected to vote in this election, in which the maximum 38 candidates were in the fray. This is the first election in Sri Lanka after the economic crisis of the year 2022. During this, there was no news of violence or security breach from anywhere in all 22 electoral districts.

Foreign election observers deployed

Let us tell you that about 8,000 local and foreign election observers were deployed for the presidential election in Sri Lanka. These included 116 international observers from the European Union, Commonwealth countries and the Asian Network for Free Elections and seven observers from South Asian countries. In fact, the leading local group People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) had deployed 4,000 local observers. This election is being seen as a litmus test for the current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has claimed to bring the country’s economy back on track.