Poll completed without any serious incidents 

By Shamindra Ferdinando-August 17, 2015, 11:53 pm

Additional Elections Commissioner R. M. A. L. Ratnayake said yesterday’s general election had been conducted wtihout single serious incident. Comparing the just concluded polls with the last presidential election in January, Ratnayake said that the parliamentary election had been the most peaceful electoral contest during the past couple of decades.

Ratnayake said that the release of results on the electoral division basis as well as preferential votes could be finalised today (18).

As the countrywide counting of ballot papers commenced under heavy police guard hours after the conclusion of the Aug. 17 parliamentary polls, the UNP led caretaker government and the SLFP-led UPFA launched negotiations to secure a working majority in the next parliament.

both coalitions admitted the difficulty of securing 113 seats to obtain a simple majority.

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution has restricted the Cabinet to 30 and deputies to 40, though a national government could pave the way for a bigger Cabinet, UNP National List MP Dr. Jayampathy Wickremeratne told The Island.

At the last parliamentary election, the UPFA secured 144 seats, including 17 National List slots, the UNP 60 with 9 NL slots, Democratic National Alliance 7 including 2 NL and the TNA 13 with one NL slot.

Voting had been brisk in almost all electoral districts yeterday, including Northern Province, Ratnayake said. There hadn’t been a single instance of the police having to use force during yesterday’s voting, Ratnayake said.

In the run-up to Aug. 17 poll, Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya warned troublemakers of dire consequences. He threatened to call for fresh polling in case political parties disrupted voting at any polling booth.

Ratnayake said that the peaceful environment had made their task much easier.

Although the police headquarters alerted the military in the run-up to the polls of possible need to call for support, there hadn’t been any such requirement, army headquarters said.

Police headquarters deployed 63,000 personnel. The countrywide police deployment was backed by over 4,000 police commandos as well as over 7,000 Civil Defence Force (CDF) personnel. Fearing violent confrontations between supporters of the two major coalitions, the police also positioned anti-riot squads at possible trouble spots.