According to early counts, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has won over 60% of the popular vote.
Armed troops have gathered around the hotel where his rival for the presidency, General Sarath Fonseka, is staying in central Colombo.
A military spokesman said their presence was a "protective measure".
Udaya Nanayakkara said that some 400 people had gathered near the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel in the capital.
High turn-out
"We don't know what is their motive and, as a protective measure, we have deployed troops around the hotel, and people who go in and come out are being checked," he said, according to Reuters.
Gen Fonseka has said he fears the troops plan to arrest him if he wins the election, a claim denied by officials. Gen Fonseka is due to give a press conference from the hotel in the coming hours.
Election officials said Mr Rajapaksa had garnered just over a million ballots in an election in which 9.85 million voted.
Some 70% of the electorate of 14.08 million turned out to vote.
The BBC's Charles Haviland, in Colombo, said early results suggested that Gen Fonseka - who leads a motley group of opposition parties - had failed to split the ethnic Sinhalese vote, meaning that the country's Tamil and Muslim minorities would not necessarily play a decisive part in the poll's outcome.
Under Sri Lanka's electoral rules, if no candidate wins 50% of ballots cast in the first count, then voters' second - or even third - preferences are tallied to determine the winner.
Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8482270.stm
Armed troops have gathered around the hotel where his rival for the presidency, General Sarath Fonseka, is staying in central Colombo.
A military spokesman said their presence was a "protective measure".
Udaya Nanayakkara said that some 400 people had gathered near the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel in the capital.
High turn-out
"We don't know what is their motive and, as a protective measure, we have deployed troops around the hotel, and people who go in and come out are being checked," he said, according to Reuters.
Gen Fonseka has said he fears the troops plan to arrest him if he wins the election, a claim denied by officials. Gen Fonseka is due to give a press conference from the hotel in the coming hours.
Election officials said Mr Rajapaksa had garnered just over a million ballots in an election in which 9.85 million voted.
Some 70% of the electorate of 14.08 million turned out to vote.
The BBC's Charles Haviland, in Colombo, said early results suggested that Gen Fonseka - who leads a motley group of opposition parties - had failed to split the ethnic Sinhalese vote, meaning that the country's Tamil and Muslim minorities would not necessarily play a decisive part in the poll's outcome.
Under Sri Lanka's electoral rules, if no candidate wins 50% of ballots cast in the first count, then voters' second - or even third - preferences are tallied to determine the winner.
Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8482270.stm
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