A total of 39 people are running, including a 79-year-old candidate who remains on the ballot despite dying of a heart attack last month.
More than 17 million people are eligible to vote in the election, with more than 63,000 police deployed to protect polling stations and counting centers.
"We also have anti-riot squads on standby in case of any trouble, but so far everything has been peaceful ," said police spokesman Nihal Talduwa.
"In some areas, we had to deploy police to ensure polling stations were safe from wildlife, especially wild elephants."
Dozens of people lined up outside polling stations in Colombo before voting began.
The government also banned alcohol sales over the weekend and announced that no rallies or victory celebrations would be held until a week after the results were announced.
Polling stations will close at 4pm (5:30pm Vietnam time) and vote counting will begin on the evening of September 21.
Results are expected on September 22, but official results could be delayed if the race is too close.
Schools were closed on September 20 to be converted into polling stations, with more than 200,000 civil servants deployed to conduct the vote.
Protesters demanding the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, inside the Sri Lankan Presidential Palace in Colombo in 2022. Photo: AFP
It is the country's first election since the recession sparked mass protests in 2022 that ousted then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
His successor, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, is fighting hard to win a new term to continue austerity measures to stabilise the economy and end months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.
His two years in office helped restore calm to the streets after civil unrest in 2022 when thousands stormed the compound of Mr Rajapaksa, who had fled the country.
"I have brought this country out of bankruptcy. Now I will bring Sri Lanka a developed economy, a developed social system and a developed political system," Wickremesinghe, 75, said after the morning vote.
But Mr Wickremesinghe's tax hikes and other measures, imposed under the terms of a $2.9 billion IMF bailout, have left millions struggling to make ends meet.
He is expected to lose to one of two formidable opponents. One is Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, 55, leader of the Marxist party. The crisis in Sri Lanka has proved an opportunity for Mr Dissanayaka, who has been supported by his pledge to change the island's "corrupt" political culture.
At a polling station, he expressed his belief that he would win the highest office. "If I win, there will be no conflict or violence. Our country needs a new political culture," he said.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, 57, son of the former president assassinated in 1993 during the country's decades-long civil war, is also expected to win by a landslide.
He vowed to fight rampant corruption. Both he and Mr Dissanayaka pledged to renegotiate the terms of the IMF bailout.
Hoai Phuong (according to Reuters)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/nguoi-dan-sri-lanka-di-bau-cu-lan-dau-tien-ke-tu-khi-nen-kinh-te-sup-do-post313299.html
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