File photo.
What Happens If No Candidate in the Sri Lankan Presidential Elections Secures Over 50% of the Votes?
1. All candidates except the top two will be eliminated from the race.
Now, the 2nd and 3rd preference votes on the ballots of eliminated candidates come into play.
2. Ballots without either finalist marked as a preference are set aside.
3. For remaining ballots: If the 2nd preference is for a finalist, that vote is added to their tally.
4. If the 2nd preference is for an eliminated candidate but 3rd is for a finalist, that vote goes to the finalist.
5. After this process, the candidate with the highest vote count wins.
Q: What happens if the winning candidate still doesn’t have over 50% of the votes from the all valid votes?
A: It doesn’t matter. Whoever has the highest number of votes after the above process is declared the winner and will be the president-elect.
⭕ For the first time in Sri Lanka’s history, preferential votes may play a crucial role in determining the outcome of this year’s presidential election.