Posted by
indi
UPDATE: The election is effectively over. The challenger Maithripala Sirisena is comfortably ahead in counting (though final results have not been issued). The incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa has conceded and left Temple Trees. Congratulations to all Sri Lankans for holding a free and fair election.
This is our rough guide to how to watch/follow the election results for the Sri Lankan Presidential Election of 2015.
tl;dr - check #PresPollSL (Twitter) or the official elections website . Also check out Derana's live results and the Daily Mirror's . Derana's is easier to use.
Who gets it first: Newsfirst
Who looks the best: Derana
What's the most fun: #PresPollSL
Firstly, when can you expect election results? We don't know. Last election (2010) the result was known by early in the morning the next day. The Elections Commission website says to start awaiting results at 8 PM tonight (Thursday the 8th Jan) but the Commissioner has said the final may be as late as Friday evening .
You can literally keep refreshing the Sri Lanka Elections page (the official source), but we suspect that site will slow down.
Ada Derana has a dedicated elections page . You can also check the Daily Mirror , News First or any of the mainstream media's websites. The Republic Square is interesting and independent and will be updating throughout the night as well.
The most fun place to be is probably Twitter. Just follow the hashtag #PresPollSL (just click the link). It's not official or edited (ie there might be some false alarms), but overall you can get news faster and better than anywhere else. In the same way, Facebook or any of your social networks should be transmitting this news in real-time.
Some credible local and connected journalists to follow on Twitter are Azzam Ameen (BBC), Dinouk Colombage (Al Jazeera), Mandana Ismail , and Amantha Perera (TIME, etc).
Most of the TV/radio stations have apps (just search for their name). There is also a dedicated election tracker this time, which shows only the results. It's called Sri Lanka Elections and it's only available for Android, check the Google Play store . It's free. It pulls the data from the Elections Commission website (how we don't know). We obviously haven't tried it yet, but it looks interesting and may be more efficient than refreshing that website over and over.
This is probably the most robust and easiest way to get the news. The Daily Mirror, Derana, radio stations and all major news providers have SMS news services. You can sign up for them using SMS, using the shortcodes here: Dialog , Mobitel , Etisalat , Airtel , Hutch . They only cost about Rs. 30 per month and are generally quite useful.
Every radio station will be reporting the election results. You can just listen to your preferred radio station, everybody will cover it. You can stream the radio stations online as well, and most of them have apps. If you check TuneIn you can stream most of them .
Each station also has their own streaming somewhere, but we figure the one source above is easier. TuneIn is an app as well.
You can also watch your preferred TV station, though the Elections Commission has threatened to ban state media Rupavahini and ITN from airing results for various elections law violations.
The safest bet is probably Derana or Swarnavahi or whatever TV station you're used to. In the end they will probably all show the results.
You can also stream most of the TV stations online. Most of them also have apps (search your app store)
That's just a selection, you can find more stations here , or just turn on your TV.
Honestly, it is harder to stay away from the results than it is to find them. The biggest question remains when, but officially stuff should start trickling out tonight.
Throughout this all we hope that you and yours are safe and well and can enjoy this de facto holiday. If you're hungry we've collected a list of delivery places that should be open . Again, stay safe.
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Pahan
My friend shared with me this link to view election results, as they update 24/7
http://www.deshapalanaya.com/english/election/
Anonymous
Simply visit http://www.deshapalanaya.com/english/election/
for latest and live election results
Kasun
Awesome article. Really helpful.
arunoda
Swarnawahini is the fastest. And there presentation is clean and nice.
Channa
Wow wow wow!!!! I never thought this would happen. Viva Mr. Maithree, Viva!!!!
l de Silva
Yes concur with that statement. Swarnavahini gave the results before any other station. To the point and hassle free and easy on the eyes. Very good job! ! Sirasa on the other hand with 4 panellists was trying to outdo others and create controversy at the decisive moment and through out by their host. Some guy call Roshan. Just not cricket! ! Sirasa goes too far at times, just to stay ahead of the competition. And this was very evident at this discussion.