Sri Lanka’s presidential election heads to preferential voting

by admin
Sep 22, 2024

Ballot papers arrive to be counted at Jaffna Central College.

For the first time in history, Sri Lanka’s presidential election has gone down to preferential votes, as ballots continued to be tallied across the island this morning.

No candidate secured more than 50% of the vote as counts took place throughout the night.

According to Sri Lanka’s electoral rules:

If no candidate secures a majority, the top two will be retained and the ballots of the eliminated candidates will be checked for preferences given to either of the top two candidates, and those votes will be added to their respective tallies.

If the second preference is for one of the two top candidates, it is counted as a vote for that candidate. If the second preference is for an eliminated candidate but the third preference is for one of the two top candidates, it is counted as a vote for that top candidate.

The candidate with the highest number of votes will be declared the winner.

The runoff will be contested between Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Sajith Premadasa.

Read more on the two candidates below:

Read more about Dissanayke - Who is Anura Kumara Dissanayke?

Read more about Premadasa - Who is Sajith Premadasa?

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Official trailer for film below.

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