In one of his first acts as president of Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake has appointed accused war criminal Sampath Thuyacontha as the new Secretary of Defence – a military figure who boasted of causing “chaos” during the Mullivaikkal genocide.

Thuyacontha was the Wing Commander of the No 09 squadron, a helicopter gunship squadron that conducted nearly 400 missions during the genocide.

An adventure park in Hanwella, Sri Lanka has apologised for naming a new paintball programme after a site of Tamil genocide.

After fierce criticism on social media, Che Adventure Park said it has made a mistake and has removed the post on all social media platforms. It said it “was shared with no intention of causing harm or offence to any race or religion”.

Sri Lanka's dollar bonds and stocks sharply declined this morning following the election of Anura Kumara Dissanayake as president, a result that threatens to derail the island’s economic recovery.

Dissanayake’s victory casts serious doubt over Sri Lanka’s ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its fragile debt restructuring deals, with the self-proclaimed Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader vowing to renegotiate the bailout loan.

Following his victory at Sri Lanka’s presidential election, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Anura Kumara Dissanayake met with India’s High Commissoner for Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha.

During this meeting the Indian High Commissioner congratulated Dissanayake on his victory and maintained India’s commitment to “further deepen ties for the prosperity of the people our two countries”.

Pakkiyaselvam Ariyanenthiran, who was put forward as the “Tamil common candidate” in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections secured over 200,000 votes across the North-East Tamil voter turnout remained low amidst apathy towards the polls and a boycott campaign.

His strongest showing was in Jaffna, where he secured 116,688 votes and finished second in the district.

Final figures are still awaited but reported voter turnouts in the North-East still lagged behind the rest of the island.

^{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.

According to Sri Lanka’s electoral rules:

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.