With Sri Lankan Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) headed by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa announcing his brother Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa (Defense secretary during Rajapaksa regime) as the presidential candidate from the party number of posts have been shared on social media both in his favour and against.

Even though United National Alliance led by United National Party (UNP) has not yet officially announced a presidential candidate, speculations are high as that would be Deputy Leader of UNP, Minister Sajith Premadasa, as he has publicly stated on him being a candidate for the forthcoming elections. As a result, Minister Sajith Premadasa is also in the limelight on social media political posts

In this context there was an image being widely circulated on Facebook in which Sri Lankan model Sandani Fernando was claiming to be supporting Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidential campaign. The post displays Sandani Fernando dressed in a t-shirt with SLPP party symbol and holding a photo of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Even though the original post shared from a page called “Presidential Election 2020 Sri Lanka” had been removed from the time of writing this article number of posts in which screen shot of the original post was being shared as below along with an explanation from Sandani Fernando.

“Voice of a People's Government” page claiming it’s a sad effort by the SLPP party supporters (බයියන්ගේ හිගන වැඩ)

Facebook PostArchived Link

“Live Sri Lanka” Facebook page also reported the incident as “Cheap politics by SLPP (පොහොට්ටුවේ හිගන දේශපාලනය)

Facebook PostArchived Link

Same post was published by Facebook user “ධනුෂ්ක තිරාණගම” as well

Facebook user “Maduka Thaksala Fernando” stating as a shameless effort from SLPP party supporters (ලැජ්ජ නැති බයියෝ)

Facebook PostArchived Link

At the same time we found a Facebook post in which Sandani Fernando was holding a photo of minister of housing, construction and cultural affairs and deputyy leader of UNP , Sajith Premadasa by G I R L class facebook page and asking everyone to share and report the post.

Facebook PostArchived Link

The same post has been shared in the Facebook Group UNP♥ බැතිමත්තු??? by facebook user Chinthaka Lakshan as below.

Facebook PostArchived Link

Fact Check (සත්‍ය තොරතුරු විමර්ශනය කිරීම)

Since we found 2 clear streams in which SLPP presidential candidate Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Minister Sajith Fernando were associated with a photo claiming to be of Sandani Fernando a Google Reverse Image Search was carried out to find the original image.

From the Google reverse image search we found that the original image initiaed from the Instagram account of official Sandani Fernando

Furthermore, after searching the official facebook page of Sandani Fernando we were able to find the original post which she had posted asking whoever created the post to find a better job as she is not supporting any political party.

Sandani Fernando Facebook PostArchived Link

Therefore it is evident from the statement of Sandani Fernado’s official facebook account that the images being circulated are an edited version of an image from her Instagram account on March 18th, in which she is seen holding a tab which she had purchased.

Conclusion: (අවසාන නිගමනය)From our investigation, it is evident the claim in which “Sri Lankan model Sandani Fernando supported the presidential campaign of Gotabaya Rajapaksa or Sajith Premadasa” is totally false.

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Title:Did Sri Lankan model Sandani Fernando support any presidential campaign of Gotabaya Rajapaksa or Sajith Premadasa?

Fact Check By: Sathyajith Subasinghe

Result: False

Hindu girlSindh province