This archive report was first published on 15 November 2019.
Published on November 15, 2019, a day before Sri Lanka's highly anticipated presidential election, a food poisoning outbreak hit the country's poll officials. At least 50 election officials at the capital Colombo's main counting centre were admitted to hospital with food poisoning.
The officials were being treated at the National Hospital after a meal at the centre, responsible for tallying hundreds of thousands of votes. According to hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa, the 50 men and women were being treated for food poisoning.
"We have 50 officials at the moment," Soysa said. "They are being treated for food poisoning."
Police said an investigation was underway, and officials stated that reserve staff would be brought in if the 50 remain sick. The election, which saw over 150,000 officials deployed to conduct the vote at 12,600 polling booths and nearly 50 counting centres nationwide, was expected to be closely fought.
Some 15.99 million people were eligible to elect a president from among 35 candidates, with only one woman candidate in the running. The two frontrunners, housing minister Sajith Premadasa and opposition leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa, were said to be neck-and-neck.
