Free and fair election, incident free post poll

Sri Lanka concluded one of the most peaceful, free and fair elections which the world called a model of democracy on Thursday for which the credit should go to Elections Commissioner, Mahinda Deshapriya and his staff, the Police and the two main candidates who urged their supporters to maintain law and order.

This call was widely heeded by the populace and there were no incidents of post-poll violence anywhere in the country as vouched for by local and international polls monitors.

Thursday's voter turnout of 81.52% was the highest ever percentage of votes polled at a Presidential Election in Sri Lanka since the first election in 1982. In the first Presidential Election in 1982 where President J.R. Jayewardene came to power, the voting percentage was 81.06%.

In 1989, it was 55.32%. Again in 1994, where Chandrika Banadaranaike Kumaratunga came to power, it was 70.47%. At this election, she secured a total 62.28% of those votes, creating a record hat still stands.

In 1999, where she emerged victorious agin, the voting percntage was 77.74%.

In 2005, when power shifted to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the viting percentage was 81.19%.

In the penultimate election in 2010, 74.49% of registered voters cast their vote. It can be observed that in all elections where a change of power took place, over 81% of voters had cast their vote.

The highest number of votes polled by a single candidate was recorded this time by President Maithripala Sirisena, with 6,217,162 votes out of 12,123,452 valid votes.

When Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga polled 62 percent of votes in 1992, she obtained 4,709,205 votes.

- Manjula