Voting begins in 2024 parliamentary election

Polls opened in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary vote on Thursday, the island’s first election under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who came to power two months ago.

Voting booths will close at 4:00 pm (1030 GMT), with Dissanayake’s party expected to build on his success at the September presidential polls.

He called the parliamentary elections nearly 10 months ahead of schedule.

Election officials said over 80,000 police officers — backed by monitoring drones —— have been deployed at the country’s more than 13,000 polling booths.

Dissanayake’s JVP, or the People’s Liberation Front, is the main constituent of the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition of professionals seeking to form the next government.