Sri Lanka's presidential election ends in peace

Voting ended peacefully in Sri Lanka's tightly contested presidential elections here on Thursday, election officials said, with results eagerly awaited.

Voter turnouts in many parts of the country, including the former war torn northern and eastern provinces, was high with people appearing 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 elections department told Xinhua.

An hour before polling stations closed, more than 70 percent voters were reported to cast in most regions.

Incidents of violating election law were mostly mild, according to elections monitors, with a grenade blast in the Point Pedro area of the Northern province, the only significant even to be reported.

However, no one was injured in the blast and police have assured investigations are continuing.

Around 15 million voters in Sri Lanka headed to the poll stations 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, railways and coal power plants springing up around the country, mostly funded by over 5 billion U.S. dollars in loans from the Chinese government.

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

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

"I appeal to the voters to protect this country. I'm confident of an outstanding victory. Triumph is defined by how the vanquished is treated. Therefore we must ensure this is a peaceful election," Rajapaksa told reporters after casting his vote.

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

"Today is a very fortunate day for our mother land. I'm ready to shoulder the massive responsibility. I'm certain the people of this country will give it to me through their vote. I ask everyone to vote peacefully, hatred only begets hatred, only compassion can prevail over hatred," Sirisena said in his hometown after voting.

The final results are expected to be released early on Friday. Endi