{"id":190524,"date":"2018-05-13T00:04:59","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T18:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=190524"},"modified":"2018-05-14T11:41:34","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T06:11:34","slug":"mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minister of Finance and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mangala+Samaraweera\">Media Mangala Samaraweera<\/a> said that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremesinghe\">Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a> is the only person suited to be a presidential candidate in 2020.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_190525\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-190525\" class=\"size-full wp-image-190525\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"718\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera-300x239.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera-768x613.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-190525\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mangala Samaraweera<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Samaraweera made this statement at a workshop for United National Party (UNP) members recently elected to local government bodies in the Matara District.<\/p>\n<p>He added that it is humorous that it is those who are with the Joint Opposition (JO) that is calling for Wickremesinghe\u2019s ouster as the Leader of the UNP.<\/p>\n<p>Samaraweera also referred to the case of Sirimavo Bandaranaike who did not step down as the SLFP Leader in the late nineties in the face of a challenge mounted by her son Anura: \u2018It was not that she coveted the position but she understood the danger of the party disintegrating without a proper leadership.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He confessed that it was he who had orchestrated a poster campaign under the theme \u2018Ranil Cannot\u2019 or \u2018Ranil is not Capable\u2019 in the run up to the 1999 Presidential Election when Chandrika Kumaratunga sought re-election.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We knew that in fact Ranil was capable and that he would be our biggest threat. It\u2019s the same situation today. It is very clear that Ranil Wickremesinghe is the most suitable presidential candidate.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":190525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020 - 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\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020 - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-12T18:34:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-14T06:11:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"718\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/\",\"name\":\"Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020 - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-12T18:34:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-14T06:11:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":718,\"caption\":\"Mangala Samaraweera\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020 - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020 - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2018-05-12T18:34:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-05-14T06:11:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":718,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/","name":"Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020 - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg","datePublished":"2018-05-12T18:34:59+00:00","dateModified":"2018-05-14T06:11:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg","width":900,"height":718,"caption":"Mangala Samaraweera"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mangala-rubbishes-doubters-says-ranil-best-suited-to-be-unp-candidate-in-2020\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mangala Rubbishes Doubters, Says Ranil Best Suited To Be UNP Candidate in 2020"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Mangala-Samaraweera.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190526,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190524\/revisions\/190526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}