ROME, NOVEMBER 16 - Urns open in Sri Lanka to elect a new president, in the midst of tensions and violence, while the memory of the Easter massacre in which over 250 people died is still alive. The vote is called 16 million people. The ballot should be completed in the evening. The candidates are 35, but among them is not the current president, Maithripala Sirisena, at the center of controversy because of the April attack, accused of having underestimated intelligence information that could have avoided him. The consultation is the third since 2009, the year of the end of the long civil war that has bloodied the country for decades. However, the tensions are still evident: just before the polls opened - reports the BBC - reports of violence in the north-west of the country have arrived, while armed men opened fire on a convoy of buses carrying Muslim voters; the police said there were no victims.