The content of the letter, titled “Regarding the Appointment of the New Mayor of Colombo,” is as follows:

“Following several rounds of discussions between the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the United National Party, it was decided to establish power in local government bodies where the government does not hold a majority, in collaboration with all other parties, under the leadership of the UNP and SJB.
During this process, Sajith Premadasa agreed to appoint Mr. Sagala Ratnayaka as the Mayor of Colombo. Subsequently, with the strong persuasion of others, agreement was reached to appoint Mr. Sagala Ratnayaka as the Mayor of Colombo.”

We investigated whether such a letter was officially issued by the UNP or Vajira Abeywardena and confirmed that no such official statement was released.

Furthermore, during our verification, it was observed that UNP Chairman Vajira Abeywardena had publicly denied the authenticity of this letter via his official Facebook page. Similarly, the official Facebook page of the UNP also highlighted that the letter is false.

Accordingly, FactSeeker confirms that the letter being circulated on social media, which claims that Sajith Premadasa and others agreed to appoint Sagala Ratnayaka as Mayor of Colombo, is a fabricated document.

Meanwhile, FactSeeker also observed a social media post claiming to quote UNP National Organizer Sagala Ratnayaka as saying that the effort to form a joint opposition has ended and that he is ready to assume the post of Mayor of Colombo.

However, upon reviewing Mr. Ratnayaka’s accounts, we found that the recent post containing this statement does not appear on any official Facebook page associated with him or the UNP. A Google Reverse Image Search further confirmed that he had not published such a post.

During our investigation, we also came across a different post with similar content and background, which had been edited to create the circulating fake post.

FactSeeker contacted UNP Chief Organizer Sagala Ratnayaka regarding this, and he stated that the post is entirely false. He also confirmed that his name is not included in the list of candidates or any nomination papers for the Colombo Municipal Council in the recent local government elections.

Therefore, FactSeeker confirms that the social media post claiming that UNP National Organizer Sagala Ratnayaka said he is ready to assume the position of Mayor of Colombo is also fabricated.