^{Ballot papers arrive to be counted at Jaffna Central College.}

For the first time in history, Sri Lanka’s presidential election has gone down to preferential votes, as ballots continued to be tallied across the island this morning.

No candidate secured more than 50% of the vote as counts took place throughout the night.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the self-proclaimed Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), has been declared the next president of Sri Lanka.

The BBC recently announced the voice cast for the upcoming CBeebies animated sitcom ‘Nikhil & Jay’, a series that spotlights the adventures of two dual-heritage British Tamil brothers.

The sitcom is based on a series of young chapter books by Chennai Tamil author and storyteller Chitra Soundar, who told the Tamil Guardian in an interview, that "the show is going to be funny, culturally authentic, and showcase a really lovely blend of British and Tamil culture!"

Although Sri Lanka's Presidential Elections have been "peaceful" according to the Elections Commission, it has decided to impose an islandwide curfew from 10 pm local time until 6 am tomorrow, with reports of tightened security at the international airport and a military roadblock in Mullaitivu.

The final results of the elections are expected to come in the morning hours of Sunday. 

Sri Lankan police arrested a Tamil youth in Jaffna this morning after he tore up his ballot paper in a reported act of protest against the presidential elections.

The 19-year-old, who was voting for the first time, entered the polling station at the Nayanmarkaddu Maheswari Vidyalayam school and had his identity confirmed by officials before receiving his ballot paper.

^{A polling station in Mannar this morning.}

Polls have closed across the island and counting has begun in the 2024 Sri Lankan presidential election.

As of 2PM local time, turnout had been reported to exceed 50% across the North-East.

In a wide-ranging interview with News Minute journalist Padma Rao Sundarji, Jaffna MP CV Wigneswaran slammed MA Sumanthiran for his endorsement of Sajith Premadasa claiming that this was “expecting personal benefit”.

Millions of Sri Lankans have turned out today to vote today in the island’s 9^th presidential election, which is the first open presidential election since the country’s economic collapse in 2022.

Early polling indicated that across the island approximately 50% of people turned out to vote. 

A special exhibition was held in Nallur, Jaffna this week to commemorate the political wing leader of the LTTE, Lt Col Thileepan, who fasted until death to protest against the repression of Tamils 37 years ago.