{"id":149199,"date":"2015-08-17T14:23:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T08:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=149199"},"modified":"2015-08-17T14:23:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T08:53:24","slug":"12-noon-close-to-50-voter-turnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/12-noon-close-to-50-voter-turnout\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Noon Close To 50% Voter Turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polls monitors say that the voter turnout at today’s parliamentary polls has been very encouraging so far and as of 12 noon close to 50 per cent of voters had turned at polling centres island wide to cast their ballots.<\/p>\n

Barring some minor incidents, the 2015 general election has also been largely peaceful.<\/p>\n

According to monitors the highest voter turnout as of 12 noon has been recorded from Anuradhapura, Nuwaraeliya, Gampaha, Kilinochchi, Kalutara, Matale and Kandy districts where the voter turnout has exceeded 50 per cent.<\/p>\n

\"Ranil\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the capital Colombo too voters had turned up in high numbers at polling stations since early morning.<\/p>\n

Election observers have recorded some minor incidents of polls law violations so far.<\/p>\n

The National Polls Observation Centre said that at a polling station in Deniyaya a government officer was caught after casting the ballot of another voter.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Matara 05 provincial journalists who had interviewed UPFA Matara district candidate Dullus Alahapperuma in close proximity to a polling stating had been detained by the Police after the chief government officer manning the polls station complained to the Police.<\/p>\n

Alahapperuma had been returning after casting his vote when the journalists had sought his comments. The 05 Journalists had been released later, following a warning.<\/p>\n

Also the Police has arrested about 20 people, including 02 brothers of a UPFA candidate contesting polls from the Kegalle district on charges of engaging in illegal propaganda on the election day.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Additional Elections Commissioner M.Mohammed who is currently observing elections in the north said that the polling in the former war ravaged province has been incident free.<\/p>\n

Also a high voter turn out has been recorded especially from Vavuniya and Kilinochchi.<\/p>\n

Over 12,000 poll centers across the country opened at 7.00 a.m. for over 15 million to cast their ballots at one of the most crucial elections in recent history. The voting will conclude at 4.00 p.m. today.<\/p>\n

According to the Election Department, 6,451 candidates are competing in 22 Electoral Districts to be elected to 196 seats of the 225-member parliament while 15,444,490 voters are eligible to cast their votes at12,314 polling stations.<\/p>\n

Security has been beefed up with the deployment of over 70,000 police officers. In addition, 4,825 officers of elite Special Task Force (STF) police and 7,000 Civil Defense Force personnel are also on election duties.<\/p>\n

The Election Secretariat has deployed 125,000 government officers for election related duty. Another 70,000 government workers will be assigned to count the votes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Polls monitoring groups have deployed over 31,000 personnel to observe the conduct of the poll.<\/p>\n

Results are expected to be announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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