Colombo, Sep 12 (PTI) Sri Lanka's Election Commission on Thursday said that all necessary preliminary preparations for the upcoming presidential election on September 21 have been completed.

With over 17 million registered voters across 22 electoral districts, the island nation is gearing up for the presidential polls, where 38 candidates are vying for the presidency.

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"We have finalised all initial arrangements and notified the relevant officials of our readiness," RMAL Ratnayake, the Commission's chairperson, told a press briefing here.

Ratnayake also addressed the potential delay in declaring the results if no candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round of counting. In such a case, he said, the commission will proceed to count the second and third preference votes.

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“We will eliminate all candidates ranked 3 to 38 and count the second and third preference votes cast for the first and second placed candidates,” he said.

Historically, all eight presidential elections since 1982 have resulted in a winner being declared in the first round, with the leading candidate achieving over 50 per cent of the votes.

This year's election, however, is anticipated to be closely contested due to the rising influence of the Marxist JVP party, which has emerged as a significant third force in the race.

Incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) politician Sajith Premadasa and Marxist JVP's Anura Kumara Dissanayake are the front runners.

The commission also announced that the postal voting, which took place over the past four days, concluded Thursday without any major incident.

More than 700,000 state officials deployed on election duty applied for the postal voting, with an estimated 80 per cent turnout.

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