Footage from NPP May Day rally? Find out the facts…

දිනපතා සත්‍ය කරුණු දැන ගැනීමට අපගේ WhatsApp චැනලයටමෙතනින් එකතුවන්න.

International Workers’ Day has become a tool for politicians to conduct their campaigns and stabilise their power rather than to celebrate the service done by the workers. This year’s International Workers’ Day is even more special because it fell only a handful of days before the local government elections.

As a result, almost every political party was more eager to demonstrate their power during this year’s May Day rallies, and misleading photos and images of the people who participated were shared through social media. Therefore, we decided to do a fact-check regarding this.

Social Media Posts :

A video purporting to be of the crowd at the rally held by the National People’s Power to celebrate International Workers’ Day on May 1st was circulated through social media with the caption, “How is the crowd?” (“කොහොමද සෙනග”)

Facebook

Several people have commented that the video contains old footage, and we investigated to check whether this is footage of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake attending the National People’s Power May Day rally.

Fact Check :

This year’s May Day rally, organised by the NPP, was held at Galle Face Green, Colombo, under the patronage of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. However, the video circulating on social media is not an incident at the Gall Face Green. 

You can watch the live broadcast of the May Day rally here.

Accordingly, when we examined the video footage separately, we discovered that certain people shared the relevant videos on social media during August and September 2024. You can watch them here, here, and.

Upon further examination of the footage, we were able to locate the public rally through Google Maps, which revealed that it was near the main bus depot in the Bandaragama area. 

Footage from the video was posted on social media.

Location

Accordingly, it was confirmed that the video above shows a rally held in the Bandaragama area.

Due to this, we investigated the rallies held by the National People’s Power in the Bandaragama area. Accordingly, it became clear that these frames show a video of the rally held in Bandaragama by the National People’s Power on August 22, 2024, in relation to the last presidential election. 

In the above social media video, then-presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake is seen arriving at the venue in a black vehicle. When examining this entire video, the black vehicle is seen arriving at the venue before Anura Kumara arrives on stage.

A footage from the video circulated online.

A footage from the rally held in Bandaragama

The similarity of the venue’s background and the colors of the clothes worn by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Tilvin Silva, and Nalinda Jayatissa is further confirmed by a photograph published in a report on the Bandaragama rally and the full video above.  

A footage from the video circulated online

A photo from a report regarding the Bandaragama rally

Similarly, it is clear that this is not a video obtained on May Day but a video published before the last presidential election.

However, a large number of people gathered at the National People’s Powers rally held at Galle Face today.

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Conclusion :

The above video, which was posted on social media, purportedly to show the crowd gathered at the May Day rally organised by the National People’s Power at the Gall Face Green on May 1st to celebrated the May Day, is actually a video clip from a rally held in Bandaragama by the National People’s Power on August 22nd, in the run up to the 2024 Presidential Election.