Sri Lankan presidential polls: Elections Commission orders 2nd round of counting

Ratnayake announced that a second preference count would be conducted, as no candidate secured over 50 per cent of the votes in the Presidential election, in line with the Presidential Elections Act of 1981.

According to the Presidential Elections Act of 1981, when no candidate has received more than one-half of the valid votes cast, the returning officer shall eliminate from the contest the candidate who has received the lowest number of votes, and the second preference of each member whose vote had been for the candidate eliminated from the contest shall be counted as a vote for the candidate for whom such preference is recorded and shall be added to the votes already counted in his favour.

Earlier, as per the last trends, Dissanayake got 49.8 per cent votes while Sajith Premadasa, leader of Samagi Jana Balawegaya, got 25.8 per cent of the votes, followed by the incumbent president and leader of the United National Party, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who mustered 16.4 per cent of the votes.

Notably, polling was held on Saturday from 7 am to 4 pm local time in 22 electoral districts.

As Sri Lanka continues to recover from the devastating economic crisis of 2022, the people of the island nation, who have been bearing the brunt of the strict austerity measures, voted in the first elections after the crisis.

The crisis, which led to widespread food and fuel shortages, prompted Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country in 2022. The economic policy of Rajapaksa, followed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, is believed to have led to the worst economic crisis in the island nation.Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, assumed office as interim president in July 2022 following Rajapaksa's removal, is now seeking re-election. (ANI)