Colombo: Voting for the presidential election in Sri Lanka started on Saturday. This is the first election in Sri Lanka after the economic crisis of 2022. 1 crore 70 lakh people will exercise their franchise at more than 13,400 polling stations across the country. Voting started at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm. The election results are likely to be declared by Sunday. Let us tell you that 116 representatives of various international election monitoring organizations have reached Sri Lanka to monitor the presidential election. 78 of the observers are from the European Union i.e. EU. The EU has previously monitored elections in Sri Lanka 6 times.
A triangular contest is expected
Sri Lanka's current President Ranil Wickremesinghe is contesting the election as an independent candidate based on the success of his efforts to pull the country out of the economic crisis. Many experts have praised 75-year-old Wickremesinghe for this. Wickremesinghe said in an election rally on Wednesday night, “I will ensure that I end the bankruptcy of the country by moving forward on the reforms we have started.” In a three-way election battle, Wickremesinghe is facing tough competition from 56-year-old Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People's Power (NPP) and 57-year-old Sajith Premadasa, leader of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
Dissanayake is a big challenge for Wickremesinghe
Analysts believe that for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka's presidential elections since 1982, a triangular contest is taking place. These presidential elections of Sri Lanka are considered very important as this election will decide the future of the country struggling to recover from the economic crisis of 2022. The election is also being seen as a referendum on the 2-year term of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the Marxist-led coalition 'National People's Power', is becoming very popular among the youth fed up with corruption, due to which he is becoming a big challenge for Wickremesinghe.
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