Fourteen million voters, who are eligible to vote at the Presidential election, can go to their respective polling booths on Tuesday January 26 and cast their vote. Polling stations will open at 7 in the morning and are kept open till 4 in the afternoon for the voters to cast their ballot.

Who is an eligible voter ? First of all, he or she must be a citizen of Sri Lanka. One must have attained the age of 18 years on the qualifying date for the relevant register which is June 1. (The Department of Elections informs voters to register themselves every year and electoral registers or lists of registered voters are revised on the basis of the registrations).

To be a registered voter, a person must also not have been found or declared to be of unsound mind under any law in force. He or she must not have been serving or not served imprisonment during the immediate proceeding seven years. While the person must be an ordinary resident at the relevant address on the operative date i.e., the day the application is made, no person is entitled to have his name entered or retained more than once in the same register.

The responsibility of the registration of electors and revision of electoral registers lies with the Assistant Commissioner of Elections who represents the Department of Elections at the district level. He directs and controls the revision work under the supervision of the District Secretary (earlier Government Agent), the administrative head of the District.

The Commissioner of Elections appoints the District Secretaries as the Registering Officers of the respective Districts. The Registering Officer appoints enumerators to visit houses for compiling the names of voters. Chief occupants of each household are expected to perfect the enumeration form supplied to them.

The village level government officer, the 'grama niladhari', undertakes the enumeration. Special enumerators are appointed for this work in the metropolitan areas like the Colombo Municipal Council area.

The Presidential election will be conducted on the basis of the 2008 electoral register since the 2009
register had not been completed at the time the nominations were received.

There is provision for postal voting for certain categories of employees. Public officials who are on duty on Election Day as well as members of the armed forces and the police are allowed postal voting. They have to apply for permission and two days are allocated for postal voting which is done at the offices where the postal voters are working.

On polling day, in the 23 electoral districts, there will be 160 polling divisions in the 14,093 'grama
niladhari' divisions. There will be 10,875 polling stations throughout the country.

After the voting closes at 4 p.m., the ballot boxes are sealed and transported to counting centres under strict security. The counting of votes commences immediately after the receipt of the last ballot box at the Counting Centre. That will be around 8 p.m.

Counting begins in the presence of the Counting Agents. Five agents representing each political party or an independent candidate can be present at the counting. Returning Officers of the respective electoral areas (District Secretaries) manage the conduct of the poll and the count of votes, with the assistance of Assistant Returning Officers and the subordinate staff.

Announcement of results to the nation is done by the Commissioner of Elections through radio and
television from his office.