Sri Lanka's fourth presidential election ended Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. (1000 GMT) after nine hours of voting amid tight security throughout the island country.

Brisk polling has been reported from all parts of the country and no major incidents have been reported at Sri Lanka's 9,912 polling stations in the 160 electoral districts.

The only major incident reported came on the eve of the polls from the northwestern Chilaw area where police opened fire on a vehicle from which a hand grenade was thrown at the police. One person was killed and four policemen were injured in the incident.

About 11.8 million voters were eligible to vote and choose from the 13 candidates. The voter turnout this time is expected to be similar to the last presidential election in November 1994 which recorded a voter turnout of 70.52 percent.

Counting will begin at 8:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) and two hours later the first postal voting results are expected to be announced.

The first electoralwise results are expected by dawn Wednesday.