Record low voter turnout in Jaffna
In an unprecedented turn of events in the Jaffna peninsula where 701,938 were eligible to vote in the 11 electoral divisions of Jaffna, only 8,524 cast their ballot at Thursday’s presidential election.

The Jaffna electoral district is made up of Chavakachcheri, Jaffna, KKS, Kayts, Kilinochchi, Kopai, Manipay, Nallur, Pt.Pedro, Udippidi and Vaddukkodai.
Of the valid votes, UNP presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe got 5,523 votes and his UPFA opponent Mahinda Rajapakse got 1,967.

According to Elections Department sources, this was the first time in the country’s election history that such a low turn out was recorded for any district at any election.

A special feature was the casting of a solitary vote in the polling division of Kilinochchi. The ballot was cast in favour of Mr.Wickremesinghe.
In the electoral district of Vanni out of a total of 250,386 registered voters only 85, 874 cast their vote. The election boycott imposed by the LTTE was attributed as the main reason for the low voter turnout.

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