Sri Lankans lined up before polling stations opened on Wednesday, wearing masks and social distancing, to elect a new parliament.
Election officials wore transparent face shields while medical personnel were deployed to ensure voters kept strict rules to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
"There will be no chance of you getting infected by the coronavirus at polling stations," said the chairman of the Election Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya.
"The polling station is safer than the beach, the restaurant and the marketplace, it's totally corona free."
Sri Lanka had reported 2,828 cases of the coronavirus and 11 deaths as of Tuesday.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seeking a two-thirds majority for his party in the 225-member parliament to enable constitutional reforms to boost his powers.
Votes are to be counted on Thursday and the results should be known that day.
Israel is poised to send troops into Rafah, the Gazan city it sees as the last bastion of Hamas, Israeli media reported on Wednesday, saying preparations were under way to evacuate war-displaced Palestinian civilians who have been sheltering there.
A Russian court on Wednesday ordered one of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's deputies be kept in custody on suspicion of taking bribes, the highest-profile corruption case since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, a senior figure in the country's ruling party, met with Donald Trump on Tuesday, becoming the latest US ally seeking to establish ties with the Republican presidential candidate.
Russian missiles damaged residential buildings and injured six people in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, early on Wednesday, Governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram.
Five migrants died in an attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain in an overcrowded small boat on Tuesday, hours after Britain passed a bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda in a move to deter the dangerous journeys.