In the last few days, various rumors have been spread in the political arena about a possible alliance of some SJB MPs with President Ranil Wickremesinghe. But so far, none of the SJB MPs have officially announced joining with the President, and the general public is keeping an eye on the political decisions of SJB and the reactions of the opposition leader Sajith Premadasa. Therefore, here is our investigation of SJB-related rumors.
Social Media posts
In such a background, posts shared on social media show that opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has decided to join Ranil Wickremesinghe and the United National Party and cooperate with them.
And with the same background as these posters, there was a video that implies it as a recent statement of Premadasa and trying to convince the public that Sajith and the SJB will join with the United National Party and build a coalition with President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Has he made such a decision at this moment? An investigation into that is below.
Fact Check
The first thing we inquired about was whether the leader of the opposition, Sajith Premadasa, had made such a statement recently. A check through his official social media and mainstream media confirmed that no such statement had been made recently.
A Statement Delivered in 2020
Then we looked into the origin of the above video through Invid-We Verify. There we saw that this was part of a statement made by opposition leader Sajith Premadasa a few months before the 2020 general elections, during a press conference a few days before the Samagi Jana Balawegaya party was formed. So now it`s being shared with a misleading interpretation as a recent statement. The video was originally broadcasted on ‘Ada Derana’ on February 26, 2020.
Sajith Premadasa said in a video at that press conference that Ranil Wickramasinghe, the UNP leader, had also been invited to come to the Samagi Jana Balawega’s launching ceremony held on March 2, 2020, at Nelum Pokuna.
The full video of the press conference in which Sajith Premadasa answered the questions the journalists raised on February 26, 2020, was posted on Sajith Premadasa’s official YouTube channel and can be watched here.
However, UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe did not join the SJB inauguration ceremony on March 2, 2020. A related media report is here. At that time, problems had arisen about the nature and the symbol of the alliance between SJB and UNP for the 2020 parliamentary election. Amid these problems, the SJB and the UNP eventually contested the August 2020 parliamentary elections as separate parties. The United National Party faced a massive defeat, failing to win a single seat at the district level.
Office of the Leader of the Opposition
The opposition leader`s media secretary said that it is part of a more than three-year-old video, which is being misleadingly shared on social media, and that the rumors that Samagi Jana Balawegaya is going to merge with the United National Party/Government are not true.
Meanwhile, Sajith Premadasa, issuing a special announcement regarding these rumors, says that his party is not ready to unite with the existing government and condemns such fake news creations. The full press release issued by the Leader of the Opposition is below.
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Conclusion
Our investigation confirms that the video circulating on social media depicting Sajith Premadasa, the leader of Samagi Jana Balavega, saying he is ready to work with the United National Party/Government is misleading. It`s a years-old video, and in the video, Sajith says he invited UNP leader Wickremesinghe to attend the launching ceremony of SJB in March 2020. However, the SJB and Sajith confirm they will not join the government/UNP now.
Title:Will Sajith be aligned with President Ranil and the UNP?
Fact Check By: Kalana KrishanthaResult: Missing Context
