Positive trend of high voter turnout-ERO

[Ethical TraderTop contributor]

Positive trend of high voter turnout-ERO
January 8, 2015  12:29 pm
Ada DErana

The voter turnout in Monaragala and Badulla, Kandy, Kagalle, and Matale Districts is reported to have exceeded 40 per cent, the Election Returning Office (ERO) said.

Voting for the Presidential poll began at 7 a.m. and will end at 4 p.m.

Approximately 37 per cent voter turnout so far has been recorded in Kurunegala and Polonnaruwa districts, while 20 to 27 per cent voter turnout reported in Galle and Matara districts, the ERO added. As at 10.00 a.m., 11 per cent voter turnout reported in Batticaloa district.

Some 15,044,490 voters will cast their votes at 12,314 polling stations in the 22 administrative districts. Ballot boxes were sent to respective polling stations from main counting centres countrywide yesterday under heavy security.

Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said that there were 303 postal vote counting centres and 1,109 main counting centres set up in 44 places countrywide.

UPDATE: voter turnout as at 11.30 a.m.
Nuwara Eliya      - 45%
Colombo        - 50%

[Ethical TraderTop contributor]

මේ වන විට ත්‍රිකුණාමලයේ කැමැත්ත 25%යි - කොළඹ 50% යි
January 8, 2015 12:10 pm
Ada Derana

ජනතාව ඡන්ද විමසීම ආරම්භ වූ අවස්ථාවේ සිට දැඩි උනන්දුවකින් සිය ඡන්දය භාවිත කිරීම සඳහා ඡන්ද මධ්‍යස්ථාන වෙත පැමිණෙමින් සිටින ආකාරය දක්නට ලැ‍බෙන බව දිවයින පුරා රැඳී සිටින අද දෙරණ වාර්තාකරුවන් පවසයි.

2015 වසරේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයේ ජන්ද විමසීමේ කටයුතු අද උදෑසන 07 ට ආරම්භ වුණා.

එම කටයුතු පස්වරු 04 දක්වා ක්‍රියාත්මකය.

මේ අතර ඡන්දය භාවිතා කිරීමට යෑමේ දී ජාතික හැඳුනුම්පත හෝ මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයා විසින් පිළිගනු ලැබු අනන්‍යතා පත්‍රයක් රැගෙන යෑම අනිවාර්ය බව මැතිවරණ මහලේකම් කාර්යාලය දැනුම් දෙයි.

මේ අතර අද(08) පෙරවරුවේ සැලකිය යුතු ඡන්ද දායකින් පිරිසක් ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබු බව දිස්ත්‍රික්ක තේරිම්භාර නිලධාරීන් පවසයි.

අද පෙරවරු 10.00 පමණ වන විට බොහෝ දිස්ත්‍රික්කවල ඡන්ද දායකයින් ගෙන් 20% කට අධික පිරිසක් ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබු බව සඳහන්ය.

මහනුවර ,බදුල්ල, කෑගල්ල සහ මාතලේ දිස්ත්‍රික්කවල ඡන්ද දායකයින්ගෙන් 40% ක ප්‍රතිශතයක් අද පෙරවරු 10.00 පමණ වන විට ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබූ බව දිස්ත්‍රික්ක තේරිම්භාර නිලධාරීවරු පවසයි.

පොළොන්නරුව දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ඡන්ද දායකයන්ගෙන් 37% ක පිරිසක් අදාළ කාලය තුළ ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබූ බව සඳහන්ය.

ගාල්ල සහ මාතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කවල ඡන්ද දායකයින්ගෙන් 20% ක් 27% ක් අතර ප්‍රතිශතයක් අදාළ කාලය තුළ ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබු බව එම නිලධාරීවරුන් පවසයි.

කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ද 32% ක ඡන්ද දායකයින් පිරිසක් අද පෙරවරුවේ ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබුණි.

එසේම නුවරඑළිය දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ මේ වන විට ප්‍රකාෂිත ඡන්ද ප්‍රතිශතය 45ක් වන අතර ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ 25% මේ වන විට ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇති බව එම දිස්ත්‍රික් තේරීම්භාර නිලධාරීන් සඳහන් කරයි.

තවද කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ 50% ට අධික ඡන්ද චායකයින් මේ වන විට ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇති බවද කෑගල්ල දිස්ත්‍රීක්කයේ 45% මේ වන විට ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇති බව එම දිස්ත්‍රික් තේරීම්භාර නිලධාරීන් පවසයි.

[SrirangaVeteran]

(Reuters) - A night of suspense lay ahead for Sri Lanka as voting ended in a closely fought presidential election that could hand Mahinda Rajapaksa an unprecedented third term or bring to power a rival who has vowed to root out corruption and political decay.

Supporters of Mithripala Sirisena, a former government minister who deserted the president and crossed sides to become the opposition's candidate in November, said figures showing a high voter turnout suggested a popular clamor for change.

"This means there is a strong sense that people need a change," said Rajiva Wijesinhe, one of more than two dozen lawmakers who defected from the ruling party in the run-up to Thursday's election on the Indian Ocean island.

But it was far from clear who would emerge the winner and, adding to tension as election officials prepared to count millions of votes, a police source said orders had been given for 800 officers to be deployed overnight outside Rajapaksa's official residence in the capital, Colombo.

The source, who gave no reason for the tighter security, said the deployment would include 250 elite force personnel.

Sri Lanka does not have a history of unrest over disputed elections. However, a sitting president has never before been ousted and the prospect of this uncharted territory has fanned speculation that the result would be distorted or even that the military might take control if Rajapaksa looked set to lose.

Rajapaksa won handsomely in the last election, surfing a wave of popularity that sprang from the 2009 defeat of ethnic Tamil separatists who had waged a crippling war against the government for 26 years.

Reminding voters of his triumph as polling booths opened, state-controlled television showed clips of Wednesday's attack in Paris by suspected Islamist militants at the offices of a satirical weekly newspaper and then switched seamlessly to old footage of the Sri Lankan war.

"When we see these images we also remember the history of terrorism in Sri Lanka," one announcer said.

Although his popularity has waned, Rajapaksa called the election two years early, confident that the perennially fractured opposition would fail to find a credible challenger. But he did not anticipate the emergence of Sirisena, who dined with the president one night and turned on him the next day.

Election officials said the turnout from an electorate of about 15 million was provisionally 65-80 percent. A result is expected to emerge in the early hours of Friday.

CORRUPTION AND AN AUTHORITARIAN STYLE

With thousands of monitors observing, the election commission voiced confidence the poll would be free and fair.

However, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) said there had been two explosions in the ethnic Tamil-dominated north of the country and another targeted at the house of a Muslim businessman in the south. No injuries were reported.

CMEV said there were also several incidents of assault, threat and intimidation "allegedly by ruling party politicians and their supporters".

The economy has flourished since the war ended and many voters - especially ethnic Sinhalese Buddhists who represent 70 percent of the population - believe that sticking with Rajapaksa would keep living standards on an upward path.

However, many complain of high living costs, rampant corruption and an authoritarian style that has concentrated power in the hands of the president's family.

On foreign policy, Rajapaksa has cold-shouldered neighboring India. He has also fallen out with Western countries that want an international investigation of suspected war crimes and criticize his record on human rights, turning instead to China as a strategic and investment partner.

Sirisena, who would lead a potentially fractious coalition of ethnic, religious, Marxist and center-right parties if he wins, has pledged to abolish the executive presidency that gave Rajapaksa unprecedented power and hold a fresh parliamentary election within 100 days.

He has also promised a crackdown on corruption, which would include investigations into big infrastructure projects such as a $1.5 billion deal with China Communications Construction Co Ltd to build a port city.

(Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Robert Birsel)