Sri Lankans turned out in large numbers to vote Friday at an unusually peaceful election called to settle a power struggle that has cast a shadow over the island's already faltering peace process.
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said about 75 percent of the 12.89 million electorate turned out to vote in Sri Lanka's third parliamentary election in four years.
"Generally speaking, election laws were very well enforced and I am grateful to the police as well as all others responsible for it," Dissanayake said as counting got underway.
Private election monitoring groups agreed the election had been generally free and fair, despite reports of intimidation and impersonations in a few districts.
Police deployed a 64,000-strong force to guard the 10,400 polling booths and counting centres while the military patrolled and reinforced areas prone to violence.
The private Centre for Monitoring Election Violence said the vote was "considerably and qualitatively less violent than the December 2001 General election." At least 41 people were killed during the previous campaign.
The main contenders, President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Freedom Alliance and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP), said they were satisfied with the vote.
The first results are expected at around midnight (1800 GMT), but the final party positions are not expected to be known before midday (0700 GMT) Saturday.
However, the elections chief said if re-polling had to be ordered in any of the areas where there had been reports of ballot stuffing, the final all-island result could be held up for weeks.
Wickremesinghe, who was one of the first to vote, expressed hopes of returning to power to pursue his internationally-backed negotiations with Tamil Tiger rebels to end the island's three-decade civil war that has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
However, most opinion polls have pointed to a hung parliament with neither Wickremesinghe's nor Kumaratunga's parties winning an outright majority.
Voting was not taking place in rebel-held north-east areas but authorities set up booths near the de facto front lines, officials said. The Tigers had arranged to bus in voters from their areas to vote.
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