Presidential Poll :

Final result on Friday morning

by Manjula Fernando

The final result of the November 17 Presidential Election will be announced the next morning, Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said yesterday.

"If everything goes well without any incidents we will be able to release the final result by next morning," Dissanayake told a media briefing at his office.

All is set for the poll, he added. Counting of ballot papers will begin as soon as the voting ends at 4.00 p.m. on Thursday.

The first postal result will be released between 9.00 p.m. and 10.00 p.m. and the Secretariat expects to release the first result around 3.00 a.m. the next day, the Commissioner said.

Dissanayake predicted an 80 per cent voter turnout if fair weather prevails. Urging all candidates and supporters to cooperate for a free and fair election, the Elections Chief stressed that on his request the three Forces have been put in high alert for any emergency.

"This does not mean that the military will be deployed to provide protection to polling centres but they will be called to control a situation if the need may be," the Commissioner warned reiterating that he will not hesitate to annul the results of any polling centre marred by violence and go for a re-poll with the same staff but with more security.

Outlining the polling day rules, he said no one other than the polling staff, two agents of the candidate, police officers, International as well as local observers (from PAFFREL and CMEV) will be allowed inside polling centres.

In addition, Presidential candidates and their provincial agents will be permitted to visit election centres without armed escorts and cellular phones.

The Elections Chief will make his decision to annul any result based on the five reports by the Senior Presiding officer, Assistant Returning Officer for the Zone, Polling Agents, static observers and the Senior police officer in charge of the centre.

Dissanayake said campaigning via electronic media was stopped 72 hours before the election day, from midnight on Sunday in line with election laws. Yesterday marked the final day for campaign rallies.

The print media was allowed to print balance accounts of the yesterday's rallies giving equal prominence to the candidates.

The election law permits only paid advertisements via electronic media from today up to election day.

A total of 13,327,160 are eligible to vote at the election.

The election is to be conducted in 10,486 centres in 160 polling divisions. There are 710 counting centres, with Colombo having the highest number of centres (82), followed by Gampaha (74) and Kurunegala (66).