Sri Lanka's western province tops voters list for presidential election

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's election commission on Monday said that three western province districts of the island nation will cumulatively have the highest number of voters eligible to vote in the presidential election scheduled for September 21.

The Elections Commission, releasing all figures from the 2024 voters’ register scheduled to be used at the poll, said three western province districts, including the capital Colombo, will together account for over 4 million out of a total of 17,140,354 registered voters throughout the island nation.

There are a total of 22 districts in Sri Lanka.

Gampaha district in the western province tops the entire list with 18,81,129 voters followed by Colombo with 17,65,351 voters.

The northeastern region’s Mullaitivu district -- former battleground when the Tamil separatist LTTE group ran its parallel state -- has the lowest number with 86,889 voters.

The northern Jaffna and Kilinochchi, the erstwhile LTTE's administrative headquarters, have 4,92,280 and 1,00,907 voters respectively, it said.

Free and fair voting in these two districts only became possible after the military defeat of the LTTE in 2009, officials said.

The separatists had largely called for a vote boycott by the Tamils at each election until their defeat.

The largest district in terms of voters is the northwestern province’s Kurunegala with 14,17,226 voters.

Voting percentage in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections has been higher -- 70 per cent -- since the first election held in 1982.

The candidate who garners 50 per cent plus one vote out of the total valid votes cast will be announced the winner.

Sri Lanka will hold the presidential poll on September 21, a contest which is likely to determine the future of economic reforms in the cash-strapped country.

This will be the first election to be held in Sri Lanka after it plunged into economic bankruptcy in 2022.