Curfew declared in Sri Lanka as soon as presidential election is over! Know why this decision was taken during the counting of votes

Curfew In Sri Lanka: A sudden curfew has been imposed in Sri Lanka after the presidential election. This has created a stir in the whole country. As a precaution to prevent any untoward incident after the presidential election, a curfew has been imposed in Sri Lanka from 10 pm tonight (21 September 2024) to 6 am on Sunday (22 September).

Voter turnout was lower than in the last election

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe issued a gazette order imposing curfew. The curfew has been announced at a time when the counting of votes is going on. The first results have not been declared yet. According to an official, there is a possibility of about 75 percent voting in the presidential election.

Elections Director General Saman Sri Ratnayaka has announced that the voter turnout in the presidential election is expected to be 75 per cent, which will be less than the 83 per cent recorded in the last presidential election held in November 2019. Voting in Sri Lanka took place from 7 am to 4 pm local time at more than 13,400 polling stations in 22 electoral districts.

Foreign election observers were deployed

More than 17 million registered voters were expected to vote in this election, with the highest number of 38 candidates in the fray. This is the first election in Sri Lanka after the economic crisis of the year 2022. During this, there was no news of violence or security breach from anywhere in all 22 electoral districts.

About 8,000 local and foreign election observers were deployed for the presidential election in Sri Lanka. These included 116 international observers from the European Union, Commonwealth countries and the Asian Network for Free Elections and seven from South Asian countries.

Prominent local group People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) has deployed 4,000 local observers. The election is being seen as a litmus test for incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has claimed to have put the country’s economy back on track.

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