Voter turnout for the Local Council Elections that were held today exceeded the predictions set by the Elections Commission (EC).

Earlier during the day, EC predicted that 38 to 40 percent of total eligible voters will vote, based on voting trends from the morning.

However, EC has revealed that while 523 ballot boxes have closed by now the voter turnout for them stood at 65.27%.

The elections which have a total of 3,934 candidates competing for local council seats have 273,182 eligible voters. Out of the 3,943 candidates, 2,264 candidates are competing for local council seats while 1,670 are competing to be part of organisations that work for women's development.

Ballot counting began at 6:30pm with preliminary results expected to arrive by 12:00am.