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Voting at Sri Lanka's presidential poll ends peacefully

Xinhua, January 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

High voter turnouts were recorded during Sri Lanka's hotly contested presidential elections on Thursday with election officials recording a largely peaceful poll.

Voter turnouts in many parts of the country, including the former war-torn northern and eastern provinces, were high with people turning out to vote early. Long lines were observed at most of the polling centers scattered around the country.

"We are expecting the vote to be quite high, perhaps even 80 percent," a source at the Department of Elections told Xinhua.

An hour before voting was to close, most regions were reporting a more than 70 percent voter turnout.

Incidents of election law violations were mostly mild, according to election monitors, with a grenade blast in the northern town of Point Pedro the only significant even to be reported. No one was injured in the blast and police have assured investigations are continuing. Endi