Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya urged voters to visit polling centers early to exercise their franchise while also calling on them to adhere to election laws.Speaking on the release of election results, Deshapriya said the first postal voting result is expected to be released between 10.00 pm and 12.00 am tonight and that the first result could most likely be Ratnapura postal voting results.

However, you can never be sure, since the ballot paper is much longer this time and since counting will only be commenced at 5.30 pm in the evening, it could be past midnight as well, he said.Deshapriya said they are confident that by 8.00 am on Monday (18), 80-90% of the results out of the 160 electoral divisions could be released.He added that they also expect to start releasing results from 6.00 pm today (16).

The Information Department will act as the main authoritative arm to disseminate official results of the Presidential Election 2019. All arrangements have been made by the department by now to circulate election results as and when they receive by the special election desk of the department set up at the Elections Commission from all 25 districts after results are officially approved by the Chief Returning Officers of the respective districts Print media institutions will get election results via e-mail or in a PDF format.The Information Department will start releasing official election results live on YouTube at 6.00 pm on Saturday.Access to YouTube is possible by subscribing to ‘Department of Government Information’ “News.lk’. Facebook – access ‘Department of Government Information’ “News.lk” and click ‘like’