{"id":206232,"date":"2019-11-11T08:33:05","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T03:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=206232"},"modified":"2019-11-11T08:33:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T03:03:05","slug":"us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/","title":{"rendered":"US Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNP Minister and Badulla District MP Harin Fernando is accusing social media giant Facebook of interfering on behalf of an \u201cAmerican contesting elections in Sri Lanka\u201d after his posts flagging SLPP Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s citizenship crisis mysteriously disappeared without a trace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Harin<\/p><\/div>\n

Fernando was unaware of his posts being removed until the head of Rajapaksa\u2019s legal team and campaign activist President\u2019s Counsel Ali Sabry told a press conference that the UNP Minister\u2019s explosive Saturday night tweets had been taken down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI condemn Facebook for censoring my posts regarding American citizenship of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. American companies should not interfere on behalf of an American contesting a Sri Lankan election. I stand by my every word. All my statements remain here on Twitter for your reference,\u201d Fernando tweeted moments<\/span><\/strong><\/a> after Ali Sabry<\/span><\/strong><\/a>\u2019s declaration.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if Minister Fernando\u2019s posts were removed because it featured photographs of Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s US passport which is the private documentation of another person. However it was Namal Rajapaksa who originally shared his uncle\u2019s purported US passport featuring a \u201cCancel\u201d stamp on it.<\/p>\n

With five days to go before the country elects the next president, SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s citizenship issues are back in the limelight.<\/p>\n

Debate is raging on social media platforms over whether the former Defence Secretary vying to be President of Sri Lanka is in fact still an American citizen.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night the third quarterly publication of the US Federal Register \u2013 a type of US Government Gazette dated November 12, 2019 created a fresh storm of citizenship controversy for Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Every quarter, the Federal Register releases a list of US citizens who have renounced American nationality. For the third time this year, Rajapaksa\u2019s name has failed to appear on the<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa\u2019s lawyers hastily tried to do damage control today after the news reverberated overnight. Yesterday morning a Buddhist monk also began a fast unto death demanding proof that Gotabaya Rajapaksa was no longer an American citizen. A team of three president\u2019s counsel including Ali Sabry addressed the media. The press conference was streamed live on social media but the lawyers did not encourage too many questions from journalists.<\/p>\n

Asked by journalists about Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s wife\u2019s US citizenship status, a visibly irked Ali Sabry retorted: \u201cThat is not relevant. She is not a candidate. I think that\u2019s enough. Go to the next question.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the press briefing Ali Sabry said that Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s identity verification documents had been submitted before ‘relevant parties’ including the Elections Commission. He said they had been accepted as eligible and adequate proof of Sri Lankan citizenship. \u201cYou can ask Prof. Hoole he saw them\u201d Sabry told journalists.<\/p>\n

However, Elections Commissioner S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole told reporters a few hours after the press conference that he had been given a chance to examine Rajapaksa\u2019s renunciation certificate and a letter from the US embassy to Gota saying his citizenship had been renounced. However, Prof Hoole said<\/span><\/strong><\/a> that while he did not see obvious flaws in those two documents, he had no way of verifying their authenticity as he was not an expert on the issue. He said the Commission had not been provided with copies of the documents.<\/p>\n

Colombo Telegraph learns that the SLPP campaign is deeply disturbed by another last minute controversy over the citizenship questions plaguing its candidate, which they hoped had ended with the Court of Appeal ruling on 4th<\/sup> October. In fact, the SLPP believed that Rajapaksa was home-free after not a single objection was raised at the Elections Commission the day the former Defence Secretary filed his nomination papers. Chamal Rajapaksa, whose deposit had also been made as a contingency measure two hours before the court ruling, was stationed at the Commission on Nomination Day, in case nominations raised against Gotabaya Rajapaksa meant he was ruled ineligible to contest.<\/p>\n

Sources told Colombo Telegraph that the SLPP is particularly concerned because NDF candidate has been gaining ground in the past two weeks. \u201cGota\u2019s campaign may have peaked a little early because it has been going since August 11\u201d said one source close to the campaign who did not wish to be named. With no major media backing besides the Sirasa TV network, Premadasa opted to put his faith in public rallies to take his messages to the villages. The NDF candidate believed that with the two largest television networks heavily skewed in favour of his opponent, the best strategy was to not rely on mass media to gain an electorate advantage, Colombo Telegraph learns(\u00a0By TB Bambaradeniya<\/a>\u00a0)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":204549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nUS Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota - 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\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-11T03:03:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"952\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\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=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/\",\"name\":\"US Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-11T03:03:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg\",\"width\":952,\"height\":960},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota\"}]},{\"@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":"US Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota - 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\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2019-11-11T03:03:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":952,"height":960,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/","name":"US Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg","datePublished":"2019-11-11T03:03:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg","width":952,"height":960},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-companies-should-not-interfere-on-behalf-of-american-contesting-sl-election-harin-slams-fb-for-removing-posts-on-gota\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"US Companies Should Not Interfere On Behalf Of American Contesting SL Election: Harin Slams FB For Removing Posts On Gota"}]},{"@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\/2019\/09\/Harin-Fernando.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206232","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=206232"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206234,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206232\/revisions\/206234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}