The stage has been for Thursday's Parliamentary elections with final preparations underway. 

Despatch of ballot boxes and staff taking up positions for election duty was witnessed across the country. 

The Commissioner General of the Election Commission Saman Sri Ratnayake told Times online that the final training of state officials assigned on election duties were carried out district wise.

According to him the male officers are would be stationed at the relevant polling centers after the training sessions held today , while the female officials on duty are requested to be preset at polling centers at 6.00 am tomorrow (November 14,2024)

Deputy Inspector General (Crimes) as well as Media Spokesman for Police, Nihal Thalduwa said that 70,000 police officers have been deployed to maintain security during and thec post-election period.

He added that apart from that there would be 3200 police Special Task Force officers deployed. Also there are 12,227 Civil Defense Force members   deployed.

DIG Thalduwa added that 11,000 army officers have been deployed in selected areas to guard strategic points as power stations. 

According to him 3109 police officers have been deployed for mobile patrols, while 269 officers have been deployed to man the checkpoints while 241 anti-riot squads have been deployed on special duties.  

Returning officer, District Secretary of Puttalam district, H.M.S.P Herath said that officers and ballot boxes were sent to 470 polling centers within the District today.

According to him 9226 officials and others have been deployed on election duty while around 2700 civil defense officers have been deployed over security.

Hambantota District Secretary and Returning Officer Bimal Indrajith De Silva said ballot boxes were distributed to 416 polling centres. A total of 520, 940 are registered to vote in the district's four polling divisions. 

Over 17 million voters are registered to vote to elect 225 members from over 8,000 candidates. 

Pix By Indika Handuwela, Akila Jayawardena, Hiran Priyankara, Romesh Madusanka and Rahul Samantha Hettiarachchchi