In the event of a need to count preference votes, Election Commission (EC) officials would take approximately three hours to finalize the results. Should this situation arise, the EC will declare the results at the district level rather than the electoral level. However, the cumulative results would include the preference votes of the top two contenders.
According to the Presidential Election Act No. 1 of 1981, preference votes are counted if no candidate secures over 50 percent plus one of the valid votes. In such a case, the second and third preferences of candidates, excluding the top two, are factored into the final tally.
Former EC Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya has indicated that there is a possibility preference votes may be counted in the upcoming election, given that more than three strong candidates are competing.
Though Sri Lankan presidential elections since 1982, including the most recent in 2019, have never required a preference vote count, there have been some near-miss instances.
The closest call occurred in the 2005 presidential election. In a closely contested race, Mahinda Rajapaksa narrowly triumphed over Ranil Wickremesinghe. Rajapaksa garnered 4,887,152 votes, or 50.29 percent, while Wickremesinghe secured 4,706,366 votes, or 48.43 percent.
Similarly, the 1988 election was tightly contested, with United National Party’s Ranasinghe Premadasa winning 50.43 percent of the valid votes. He received 2,569,199 votes, edging out his main rival, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, who garnered 2,289,860 votes, or 44.95 percent.
