Voting underway in Sri Lanka, turnout rates mixed

Sri Lanka's presidential election Thursday was marked by low polling in the Tamil minority north and eastern areas while high and brisk voting was recorded in the Sinhala majority dominated south, election officials and polls monitors said.

After five hours of voting, only 516 people had voted in the northern capital of Jaffna. The city was observing a protest shutdown with less people seen on the streets.

There was no polling in the Tamil Tiger held areas with not a single voter turning out to vote in the polling stations, polls monitors said.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) urged the Tamil minority to stay away from the poll, claiming that they had no faith in both leading candidates, the incumbent Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

In the eastern province, the polling has been good in the Muslim dominated pockets while the Tamil community was showing less enthusiasm, officials added.

Two more explosions rocked the polling stations in the eastern Batticaloa town following two explosions on Wednesday night, police said. At least two policemen were injured in the attacks.

In the Muslim dominated town of Kalmunai, the opposition parties complained of intimidation of voters.

In the rest of the country, in areas dominated by the Sinhala majority, over 50 percent polling had taken place on average by noon.

Over 13.3 million Sri Lankans were eligible to vote in the election to appoint a President for a six-year term.

And 10,486 polling stations are open throughout the island from 07:00 to 16:00 local time (0100 to 1000 GMT).

Source: Xinhua