Brisk voting at Sri Lanka presidential elections despite grenade attack

Sri Lankan police have begun investigations into a grenade attack in the north as millions of voters turned out in droves to elect a new president on Thursday.

Brisk voting was observed from all areas of the country with election monitors predicting a turnout of over 70 percent if the current trends continue.

However, a grenade attack in the northern town of Point Pedro has raised concerns over voter intimidation. Nonetheless reports from the ground say voters have not been deterred by the explosion and long lines are observed at most polling stations.

"We have received information of the grenade blast. No one was injured and police are at the scene conducting investigations," said Police Media Spokesman Ajith Rohana.

Over 25 percent of voting was reported in the former Tamil Tigers stronghold of Kilinochchi.

Closer to Colombo voter turnouts after just four hours of polling booths opening hit 50 percent as enthusiasm of a close race ran high.

Smaller malpractice such as 150 forged ballot papers being discovered in Mathugama on the outskirts of the capital was also reported by local media.

Fifteen million voters in Sri Lanka head to the polls on Thursday to elect their new president in what has been the closest fought race in a decade.

The two main contenders are incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is seeking an unprecedented third term in power.

He called elections with two years yet to go in his second term and is still strongly supported by the Sinhala Buddhist majority of the country for ending a three-decade war against the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

Rajapaksa has also spearheaded a massive development drive with new ports, highways and railway and coal power plant springing up around the country.

However, since then his government has run into trouble over corruption, human rights and nepotism along with a rise in extremism that saw the worst communal riots between majority Sinhalese and minority Muslims in decades in June 2014.

In November, Rajapaksa's Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena crossed over as the opposition's presidential candidate, throwing the race wide open.

Sirisena, who heads a broad coalition including main opposition United National Party, has promised to promote good governance and trim the powers of the executive presidency.

If voting continues at such high numbers, polls monitors predict that this could be the highest voter turnout in the history of Sri Lanka's presidential elections. Endi