UPDATE - Voting ends in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections

UPDATES WITH VOTING ENDS; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE

By Anadolu staff

Polling in Sri Lanka’s presidential election ended on Saturday.

Polls began at 7:00 a.m. local time (0130GMT) and continued until 4:00 p.m. (1030GMT) at 13,421 stations across the island nation.

The final results are expected to be announced on Sunday.

More than 17 million voters were eligible to cast ballots to elect a president for a five-year term.

It is the first presidential election since Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in 2022, leading to the ouster of the government, including the serving president.

Among nearly 40 candidates included incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, Marxist-leaning parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Namal Rajapaksa, the heir apparent to the once-powerful Rajapaksa clan.

The election is seen as a referendum on Wickremesinghe’s two years in office, which has seen a slight recovery in the country’s economy since the 2022 financial crisis.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid