Vote counting begins in presidential election in Sri Lanka, various violent incidents reported

Vote counting began in Sri Lanka after polls closed on Saturday for 16 million eligible voters looking to choose their new president.

Polls closed at 5 p.m local time (1130 UTC) and results for the island nation’s new leader are expected on Sunday at the earliest.

The winning candidate must secure over 50% of the votes before being declared president.

In a country where ethnic divisions are still raw after a decades-long civil war and this year’s deadly Easter Sunday bombings, Colombo-based Centre for Monitoring Election Violence reported 69 incidents up until 10 a.m. (04:30 UTC).

This included a report of gunmen shooting at buses transporting Muslim voters in the Anuradhapura district, 180 kilometres north of the capital, Columbo.

Via DW