Voters enthusiastic, early turnout high at polls – Monitors

Voters were queuing up to cast their preference all over the country and election monitors reported the early turnout was high. Speaking to Perambara, Rohana Hettiarachchi of the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections added that only a few minor incidents have been reported so far, in the sixth Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka.

He said that in several areas, there were reports of party representatives at polling stations being chased away, or intimidated, and that there was one recorded arrest of a person attempting to impersonate a voter.

Early this morning, loud sounds were heard in the city of Jaffna close to the Nallur area at around 3:45am. Hettiarachchi added that there were unverified information flowing in from the Nothern peninsula about the incident.

Member of Parliament from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Vijitha Herath was detained by the Vavuniya Police, but was later released.

Perambara Team reporting within the Menik Farm in Vavuniya witnessed long queues being formed by enthusiastic voters waiting to cast their ballots. Issues arose when the polling officials refused to accept the temporary Police identity card as acceptable form of identification for voters to cast their ballot.