Voting for General elections 2010 began this morning at 7am which will continue till 4pm today.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa cast his vote at the Medamulana, D. A. Rajapaksa Vidyalaya, Hambantota this morning.

This is the first General election to be held in post-war Sri Lanka and the second major election in four months following the Presidential Election in January this year.

Tight security is in place to ensure free and fair polls to elect members to the 14th Parliament where 196 members will be returned on the District List and 29 from the National List.

The Election Commissioner has taken steps to deploy Special Task Force officials at polling stations where certain incidents had been reported during earlier elections. STF contingents have already been dispatched to particular centres where violent incidents could be expected, the Commissioner said.

A total of 7,620 candidates from 36 political parties and 301 independent groups are in the fray representing 22 electoral districts. Together with the National List members, the House will comprise 225 members under the Proportional Representation system.

A total of 14,088,500 persons are eligible to cast their vote in today’s election which will be conducted at 11,155 centres.

Counting is scheduled to commence at midnight at 1,387 counting centres out of which 20 counting centres have been established to count votes of IDPs. Counting of postal votes will take place first.