Voting under way in first Sri Lanka election since economic collapse 

Voting has ended in Sri Lanka’s presidential election as the country seeks to recover from an economic crisis and political upheaval that triggered mass protests and forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee.

The election on Saturday is widely seen as a referendum on his successor Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has restored some stability through austerity policies backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The measures, including tax hikes, have left millions struggling to make ends meet and are unpopular with many voters.

Turnout was at nearly 70 percent an hour before polling stations closed at 4pm (10:30 GMT), an election commission official said, citing provisional figures, the AFP news agency reported.

The record for voter turnout in a Sri Lankan presidential election was set in 2019 at 83.72 percent.

“I’ve taken this country out of bankruptcy,” Wickremesinghe said after casting his ballot.

“I will now deliver Sri Lanka a developed economy, developed social system and developed political system,” said the 75-year-old veteran politician who has been prime minister multiple times.

People wait in a queue to cast their ballots at a polling station in Galle [Idrees Mohammed/AFP]

“Decide if you want to go back to the period of terror, or progress.”

The economic crisis has boosted support for Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The party led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead, and it won less than 4 percent of the vote in the last parliamentary elections.

But Sri Lanka’s crisis has proven an opportunity for the 55-year-old Dissanayaka, who has seen a surge of support based on his pledge to change the island’s “corrupt” political culture.

Fellow opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, 57, the son of a former president assassinated in 1993 during the country’s decades-long civil war, is also expected to make a strong showing.

A policeman keeps watch at a polling station in Colombo [Ishara S Kodikara/AFP]

Both Premadasa and Dissanayaka have pledged to renegotiate the terms of the IMF rescue package to make austerity measures more bearable.

Wickremesinghe has warned that any move to alter the basics of the agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly $3bn in assistance pledged by the IMF that is crucial to maintaining stability.

“There is a significant number of voters trying to send a strong message … that they are very disappointed with the way this country has been governed,” Murtaza Jafferjee of think tank Advocata told AFP.

Economic issues were at the forefront of the eight-week campaign, prompted by widespread public anger over the hardships endured since the height of the crisis two years ago.

Official data showed that Sri Lanka’s poverty rate doubled to 25 percent between 2021 and 2022, adding more than 2.5 million people to those already living on less than $3.65 a day.

Experts warn that Sri Lanka’s economy is still vulnerable, with payments on the island’s $46bn foreign debt yet to resume since a 2022 government default.

The IMF said reforms enacted by Wickremesinghe’s government were beginning to pay off, with growth slowly returning.

“A lot of progress has been made,” the IMF’s Julie Kozack told reporters in Washington, DC, last week. “But the country is not out of the woods yet.”

About 17 million Sri Lankans are eligible to vote and will rank three candidates in order of preference on the ballot paper. A record 38 candidates are vying for the presidency.

Thousands of police forces have been deployed to polling stations in a country that has a history of political violence. The government also banned the sale of liquor over the weekend and said no victory rallies or celebrations would be permitted until a week after the results were announced.

Vote counting was expected to start about three and half hours after polling stations closed and a result is expected on Sunday.