{"id":147312,"date":"2015-07-11T20:37:49","date_gmt":"2015-07-11T15:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=147312"},"modified":"2015-07-11T23:59:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-11T18:29:28","slug":"patriotic-gota-lies-on-facebook-prefers-to-remain-a-us-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/patriotic-gota-lies-on-facebook-prefers-to-remain-a-us-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriotic Gota Lies On Facebook: Prefers To Remain A US Citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Gota can easily win if he contests and secure a parliamentary seat, however for him to do that he has to give up his American citizenship, we thought he is patriot”\u00a0an angry source close to Wimal Weerwansa told Colombo Telegraph today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gota\"<\/a>

Gota<\/p><\/div>\n

In a previous interview with Sri Lanka Mirror<\/span><\/a> in early April Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> was quoted as saying \u201cSo if I get a chance to contest, I will,\u201d. This was in relation to him claiming that although he initially did not have any intention of entering politics, he said he feels that various reasons have pushed him into deciding otherwise.\u00a0However he said that he has not chosen a political party to contest yet.<\/p>\n

In his quest to maintain his American Citizenship, the former Defence Ministry Secretary has now shifted his stance and updated his Facebook status which reads ” I wish to re-affirm my commitment and dedication to serving the country and its people as in the past, in defeating terrorism and spurring on development. Though I received numerous requests to enter parliament, I have decided against contesting in the upcoming general elections. However, let me assure you of my continued commitment to serving the people and the nation. We need to persist in our struggle to safeguard the unitary status of our country whilst developing the nation. Let us all join hands in bringing back a stable and secure nation and re-build a harmonious society”<\/span><\/p>\n

“This a lie, the real reason is he is not willing to give up his US citizenship, we begged him to give it up” concluded the disappointed source.<\/p>\n

The 19th Amendment added a new sub-paragraph to the paragraph \u201cDisqualification for election as Member of Parliament<\/a><\/span>\u201d in the Article 91 of the constitution.<\/p>\n

After the amendment \u201cNo person shall be qualified to be elected as a Member of Parliament or to sit and vote in Parliament if he is \u201ca citizen of Sri Lanka who is also a citizen of any other country\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gotabaya<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":147304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6980,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-sri-lanka-parliamentary-elections-2015","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nPatriotic Gota Lies On Facebook: Prefers To Remain A US Citizen - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/patriotic-gota-lies-on-facebook-prefers-to-remain-a-us-citizen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patriotic Gota Lies On Facebook: Prefers To Remain A US Citizen - 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