A Fake Statement Falsely Attributed to MP Rohini Kavirathna related to Galle Municipal Council?

Recently, much attention was drawn towards the annual budgets presented to several municipal councils and their results. Here is a fact-check we did on viral posts related to a fake statement linked to SJB (Samagi Jana Balawegaya) parliamentarian Rohini Kavirathna, linked to an incident at the Galle Municipality Council.

Social Media Posts:

A social media post resembling the format of the Ada Derana Facebook page stated that MP Rohini Kavirathna made a statement related to the turn of events at the Galle MC. Below is the English translation of the purported statement.

“Officers were attacked with water because of their own fault. If they acted according to the way told by our party councillors, such a situation would not have arisen.”

Facebook | Archived Link

Many people have expressed their opinions and have shared the post, believing that MP Kavirathna had indeed made such a statement.

The post was further shared across Facebook.

Facebook | Archived Link Facebook | Archived Link Facebook | Archived Link

Accordingly, we took steps to check the credibility of this post.

Fact Check:

During the special general assembly of the Galle Municipal Council held on the 30^th, a tense situation arose in the council, as opposition members protested against the municipal secretary and other officials. At the time, the joint opposition members threw water at the municipal secretary and other staff. Amidst this, the above post was shared with an image of the commotion at the Galle MC alongside a statement linked to MP Rohini Kavirathna.

Since the alleged statement is circulating under the Ada Derana Facebook post format, first, we checked the posts on our Ada Derana Facebook page. The page had published a post regarding the incident at the Galle Municipal Council on the 30^th, but we could not find any post regarding a statement made by MP Rohini Kavirathne regarding the water attack.

We checked other media platforms as well to check whether the MP has made such a statement, but none of them have reported on a statement by the MP.

MP Rohini Kavirathna

We contacted MP Rohini Kavirathna, who stated that posts circulating on social media are completely fabricated, and that she had not made any statement regarding the incident at the Galle Municipal Council.

MP Kavirathna described that, unfortunately, MPs who raise their voices in Parliament on pressing issues often get targeted in this manner and that it was not the first time she had been at the receiving end of such fake campaigns.

Meanwhile, the MP had also posted on her Facebook page, stating that the post circulating on social media is false, and that it demonstrates the incompetence of the government.

Facebook

What happened at the Galle Municipal Council?

At the special general meeting of the Galle Municipal Council held on the 30^th, a tense situation arose after the mayor commenced the meeting, as the members of the Joint Opposition objected to the council secretary and other officials. It was in response to the Secretary and other officials, regarding a dispute that arose during the budget approval vote held the previous day.

As soon as the Mayor announced the committee session, the opposition members protested and attacked the secretariat with water, and the Mayor postponed the meeting for half an hour.

After one and a half hours, the committee session of the Municipal Council began. However, a few minutes later, the opposition members left the meeting.

Later, 5 opposition MPs and a female MP were arrested on charges of criminal coercion and obstruction of duty against officials, including the Municipal Secretary. They were produced before the Galle Magistrate’s Court, and were released on a personal bail of Rs. 500,000 each.

The budget of the Galle Municipal Council, formed jointly by the National People’s Power and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, was defeated in its first reading on the 15th and was presented to the council for the second time on the 24th. This time, there were 21 votes in favour of the budget and only 15 votes against. Accordingly, the budget was passed with a majority of 6 votes.

However, at the time, the opposition members claimed that some of the votes that were cast against the budget were considered as votes in favour. Later, an opposition member conducted a second vote. To control the tense situation, the Police were also called to the council. However, at the time of the second vote, the 19 members representing the ruling party left the chamber, and only 17 opposition members remained.

The Galle Municipal Council incident and other related news can be found here, here, and here.

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Conclusion:

Our investigation shows that SJB MP Rohini Kaviratne has not made any statement regarding related to the turn of events at the Galle Municipality council and that the viral posts were fabricated.