2024 General Election: Voter turnout down 10% compared to presidential poll

The Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Rathnayake states that there has been a significant reduction by 10% of the voter turnout in 2024 General Election, in comparison with Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election which was held in September 21.

The Elections Commissioner General also confirmed that 5% of the ballots casted have been rejected, which is 667,240 votes in total.

The total number of votes polled is 11,815,246 which amounts to a 68.93% of total registered votes out of which 11,148,006 were considered valid, according to the Election Commission.

Furthermore, Mr. Rathnayake clarified that only a candidate who contested the General Election and was defeated or a person whose name has already been mentioned in their party or independent group’s national list can enter the Parliament as an MP for the national list seats.

He also emphasized that all candidates who contested the election must submit their expenses reports to the Election Commission within 21 days.

According to the Elections Commissioner General, over 3.5 million citizens who were eligible to vote had not casted their votes during 2024 Presidential Election. The figure was 21.54% of the population that were eligible to cast their vote.

He had previously clarified that out of 17,140,354 registered voters, a total of 13,619,916 had cast their votes in the Presidential Election which was 79.46%, while 3,520,438 (21.54%) did not vote.