Propaganda activities for the presidential election to be held on Saturday (16) will come to an end at 12.00 midnight today (13) in order to provide a cooling period and for the general public to make their independent decisions sans influence.
The hectic and closely fought 44-day campaign to elect the seventh executive president of Sri Lanka will come to an end with the final rallies of the candidates scheduled for this evening.
New Democratic Front (NDF) presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa will have his final rally in Maradana today, while his rival Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa will hold his in Homagama. National People’s Power (NPP) candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake, meanwhile, will address the crowds a final time in Maharagama today.
Nominations for the election were accepted from 35 candidates representing 19 political parties, 13 independent groups and three other parties.
A total of 15,992,096 voters are eligible to vote at 12,845 polling booths countrywide while postal while 659,030 of them were eligible for postal voting from 31 October to 5 November.
Also, the Elections Commission has received a total of 3,729 complaints during the period between 8 Oct to 12 Nov regarding election law violations and violent activities.
Twenty-seven violent activities have been reported to the National Election Complaint Management Centre and District Election Complaint Management Centres while 3,596 election law violations were reported to the respective centres. Some 106 other cases had also been reported.
The People’s Action For Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) has requested from Facebook to help in controlling and mitigating Facebook-related campaigning after today, over which the election laws of the country do not have any control.