Sri Lanka Decides - Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections

Sri Lanka Decides -  Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections

Polling of the General Election 2020 to pick 225 legislators for the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka will kick off this morning at 7.00 am. The voting process is scheduled to be concluded  in this evening at 5.00 pm.

More than 16 million voters are eligible to go to the polls when they open at 7am local time (01:30 GMT) on Wednesday, with Parliament's 196 directly elected seats in 22 multi-member districts up for grabs.

Parliament's remaining 29 seats will be filled by proportional representation based on the results of Wednesday's poll.

Due to the risks posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the health guidelines introduced by the authorities will be strictly adhered to during the entire process. Voters will wear masks, carry their own pens to mark ballot papers and maintain physical distancing. These are just a few of the unprecedented public health measures the country's election commission has announced as it aims to conduct an "infection-free" poll on Aug. 5. Each booth will have hand sanitizers at the entrance and exit of each booth, and the polls will be kept open an extra hour in the evening, according to the commission.

A total number of 16,263,885 voters have qualified to exercise their franchise in this tight competition among 7,452 candidates from 20 political parties and 34 independent groups. They will be contesting for 22 electoral districts.

Voting will be carried out at 12,985 polling stations across the island under tight security of Police and civil defence personnel.

The Chairman of the Elections Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya, meanwhile, said the results of the General Election 2020 will be issued before midnight on August 06.

It is expected to issue the results of the preferential votes before Friday (August 07) as well, he had further stated.