ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lankaâ€s elections where president Anura Dissanayake is seeking a strong parliamentary majority for his government for his term, started on largely peaceful environment, officials said.
Dissanayake won the Presidency in the latest stabilization crisis of the island, after inflationary rate cuts to boost growth, triggered yet another currency crisis which ended in sovereign default.
President Dissanayake in his final election rally pledged to complete external debt restructuring by December and complete a review of an International Monetary Fund program, the 17th since aggressive money printing began in the 1960s initially to re-finance rural credit.
Lately it has been indiscriminate credit through open market operations to narrowly target a policy rate, critics say.
Sri Lankaâ€s elections commission R M A L Rathnayake urged voters to go early as rains were forecasted for later in the day.
Some district officials said they hoped to start counting postal votes by 4.30 pm. Postal votes results are expected from around 1030 pm.
Counting of the ballot boxes from polling stations may begin around 830 pm, district returning officers said.
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