Counting of votes underway for Presidential elections in Sri Lanka

Rajapaksa, the main opposition candidate, was leading with 52.87 percent while housing minister Sajith Premadasa had 39.67 percent out of half a million votes counted.

Colombo: The results of Sri Lanka's presidential election will be announced on Sunday as counting of votes is underway in an election that was marred by incidents of violence that left several people injured.

The winning candidate must secure over 50% of the votes before being declared president.

According to the local media, Sri Lanka's former wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa took an early lead in a fiercely fought presidential election conducted under high security seven months after deadly Islamist attacks.

Rajapaksa, the main opposition candidate, was leading with 52.87 percent while housing minister Sajith Premadasa had 39.67 percent out of half a million votes counted.

While according to the media report, Sri Lanka's Housing and Cultural Affairs Minister Sajith Premadasa took an early lead in a fiercely fought presidential election. Premadasa, belonging to the United National Party (UNP) or the main ruling party in the country, was leading with 50.52 percent votes, while former wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had 41.97 percent out of half a million votes counted.

The election is the first incumbency test of the UNP-led government since the April 21 suicide bomb attacks that killed at least 269 people and were blamed on local Islamist terror groups.

The government had faced severe criticism for failing to prevent the attacks despite prior warnings.

The six-week campaign in a neck-and-neck race has seen tensions mount across Sri Lanka, with the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) documenting at least 743 electoral violations, including at least 45 cases of assaults or threats.

The alleged violations are split relatively equally between the two leading parties, Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka People's Front (SLPP) and Premadasa's UNP, media quoted the CMEV data as showing.

Sirisena's term was also marred by a failed attempt to remove Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe from the office, which sparked a constitutional crisis that even when resolved by the Supreme Court which restored Wickremesinghe to his position left a government essentially cleaved in two, media reported.