Over 40% of the voters have, reportedly, so far turned up to cast their ballots for the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha election.

Casting votes for the Elpitiya PS election commenced at 47 polling booths at 7.00 a.m. and will continue until 4.00 p.m. this evening (11).

The total number of voters eligible to cast their ballots stands at 53,384.

Among the 155 candidates from recognized political parties, who are running for the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha election, 28 will be elected as PS councillors.

The voters are required to submit a form of identification accepted by the Elections Commission in order to cast their ballot.

A total number of 800 staff members have been deployed for election duties and the ballot papers have already been directed to the polling booths, the Galle District Counting Officer Somaratne Vidanapathirana said.

Urging the voters to cast their ballot without delay, the Galle District Counting Officer added that balloting is continuing peacefully at the moment.

Speaking to Ada Derana, he also stated that there had not been any reports on the violation of election laws so far.

He noted that the final result of the election will be announced before 10.00 pm tonight.

Stating that the election results will be announced on three occasions, Mr Vidanapathirana said the results of the election will be announced at the polling stations initially, secondly, the results of each of the 17 divisions will be announced and that the overall results will be released eventually.

Out of this total, 17 are elected at divisional level and 11 are elected under the proportional representation.