The South Asian Island country, Sri Lanka heads to the polls to elect its 10th president!
This marks the country's first election since catastrophic 2022 economic crisis that saw the country default on its loans.
Months of food and fuel shortages had caused political chaos forcing then- President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country in July 2022.
The incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took Rajapaksa and since tried to turn the economy around.
For the unversed, the voting will begin at 7am on Saturday across the country's 13,134 polling stations. Polls close at 4pm and the vote counting is expected to start at 9:30pm.
Voters rank up to three candidates in order of their presence on the ballot paper.
A candidate needs to secure 50 percent of votes as a first preference to secure the Presidential seat.
About 17 million people out of Sri Lanka's 22-million population are eligible to vote. Sri Lankan nationals aged 18 years or above, who are registered with the election commission, can vote.
According to the 19th Amendment of Sri Lanka's constitution, passed in 2015, the President holds office for five years, and has a two-term limit.
