COLOMBO - Voting for the presidential election in Sri Lanka kicked off on Saturday, with over 17 million registered voters to elect the South Asian country's president for the next five years.

A total of 38 candidates contest in this year's presidential election, including incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa of the opposition Samagi Jana Balawega (SJB), and Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People's Power (NPP).

Voting started at 7 am local time on Saturday and will end at 4 pm on the same day, with over 13,000 polling stations being set up for the election.

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Special security measures and traffic plans are in place, according to the police.

A candidate needs more than 50 percent of votes to win the election. If no candidate obtains such majority, it could lead to a second round of vote counting, where the second or third preferences of voters are counted for the top two candidates.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who won the presidential election in November 2019, resigned from the post in July 2022 amid a severe economic crisis in the South Asian country.

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Wickremesinghe was elected as president in an election held in parliament following Rajapaksa's resignation.