The voting for Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election 2024 has officially commenced this morning (September 21).

Accordingly, polling is scheduled to be held today (21) at 13,421 polling stations across the island from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

A record-breaking 38 candidates are contesting this year’s election, the highest number of presidential candidates in the country’s history.

A total of 17,140,354 Sri Lankans are eligible to vote, with the Gampaha District registering the highest number of voters with 1,881,129. 

Colombo District is second with 1,765,351 registered voters, and Kurunegala District has 1,417,226 voters. The Northern Province has a combined total of 899,268 registered voters.

Large numbers of voters were seen gathering at the Colombo Central Bus Station, Private Bus Stations, Fort Railway Station, and Makumbura Multimodal Transport Center since yesterday, preparing to travel to their respective hometowns to cast their votes.

A large number of international election observers including from the European Union (EU) and Commonwealth observers, working across various teams, have also reported to their posts across all nine provinces in Sri Lanka, ahead of the country’s presidential election.

13,421 polling centres have been set up across the country for over 17 million registered voters and they will choose among 38 presidential candidates, the largest ever such pool in the history of the country.