Sri Lanka's fourth presidential election began Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. local

time (0100 GMT) amid tight security throughout the island country.

About 11.8 million voters are eligible to vote at 9,912 polling stations to choose from 13 candidates. But the main contenders are the incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunga of the People's Alliance and Ranil Wickremesinghe of the main opposition United National Party.