Polls have opened in Sri Lanka in the country's presidential election, the first since the Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated after 25 years of civil war.
Security is tight with 68,000 police patrolling streets on Tuesday. Minor blasts have been reported in the northern Tamil city of Jaffna, the BBC reports.
Election officials say there have been 800 incidents of politically-motivated violence in recent weeks, resulting in the deaths of four people.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is facing a tough test against his former army chief General Sarath Fonseka.
Former allies, they became bitter rivals when General Fonseka decided to run for the presidency.
More than 14 million voters are eligible to vote in 11,000 centres from 7am local time. Polls will close at 4pm.
Counting will begin three hours later and the final results are expected to be announced on Wednesday morning, the election commission has said.
There are 22 candidates standing for the presidency.
If no candidate has 50% plus one vote after the first count, second preferences will be tallied and the candidate with the greatest number of votes wins.
