copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Ranil Wickremesinghe Contest the Presidential Election Under the “Heart” Symbol !! (Social Media Users, 2024-07-31)
Evidence (2020-02-16): The discussion had then shifted towards the alliance symbol and MPs Vajira Abeywardena and Palitha Range Bandara had noted that the UNP’s participation at the upcoming general election was of great importance and the party should therefore contest under the "elephant" symbol. [...] Thus commenced the tug-o-war on the symbol of the proposed alliance. The Wickremesinghe faction, while opposing the "heart" [...] When the discussion was again stuck on the symbol issue and whether the alliance should contest under the "elephant" or"heart", Karunanayake had stepped in and offered the symbol of a political party affiliated to him – the New Democratic Front (NDF), of which the symbol is the "swan".
Claim: Ranil Wickremesinghe Contest the Presidential Election Under the “Heart” Symbol !! (Social Media Users, 2024-07-31)
Evidence (2024-09-22): Incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe won 17% of the vote, putting him in third place in the polling. He was eliminated from the second count, which was only between the two frontrunners. [...] "With much love and respect for this beloved nation, I hand over its future to the new president," Wickremesinghe said in a statement. [...] Wickremesinghe said during the campaign he would double tourist arrivals and establish a national wealth fund, as well as new economic zones to increase growth.
Claim: Ranil Wickremesinghe Contest the Presidential Election Under the “Heart” Symbol !! (Social Media Users, 2024-07-31)
Evidence (2024-09-23): Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, secured victory over opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the country two years ago after its economy hit bottom. [...] Outgoing President Wickremesinghe in a video statement congratulated Dissanayake and said he hoped he will carry forward the economic recovery efforts successfully. The election was a virtual referendum on Wickremesinghe’s leadership, including restructuring Sri Lanka’s debt under an International Monetary Fund bailout after it defaulted in 2022. [...] Under Wickremesinghe, inflation has dropped and foreign reserves and the local currency have strengthened. A 2% economic growth is predicted this year after a 7% contraction in 2022. But Sri Lankans are still struggling with high taxes and living costs.
Claim: Ranil Wickremesinghe Contest the Presidential Election Under the “Heart” Symbol !! (Social Media Users, 2024-07-31)
Evidence (2024-09-22): Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as president with the backing of the Rajapaksas' party. He stabilised the economy and negotiated a $2.9bn bailout package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). [...] The NPP and Dissanayake capitalised on this sentiment, as many in the country saw him as someone outside the old order. [...] During his campaign speech Dissanayake also promised to scrap a wind power project in the north funded by the Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani, who is believed to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Claim: Ranil Wickremesinghe Contest the Presidential Election Under the “Heart” Symbol !! (Social Media Users, 2024-07-31)
Evidence (2024-07-28): Ranil Wickremesinghe announces candidacy for Sri Lanka's presidential race [...] Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election set to be held on September 21. [...] He also informed about his decision to contest the presidential elections in a post on X. Wickremesinghe said that it was love for his country that drove him to take up the task of rebuilding Sri Lanka, which was in chaos and on the brink of bankruptcy. He called on people to support him to create a bright future for Sri Lanka.
Claim: Ranil Wickremesinghe Contest the Presidential Election Under the “Heart” Symbol !! (Social Media Users, 2024-07-31)
Evidence (2024-09-22): Dissanayake, 55, defeated the incumbent, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was installed as president in 2022 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to resign and flee the country amid a popular uprising. The win by Dissanayake, the leader of the hardcore leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which is a member of the broader National People Power (NPP) coalition, was seen by many to be a watershed moment for his party. It is the first time it has sat in the presidential office. [...] Wickremesinghe, a six-time former prime minister, was appointed in his place and tasked with getting the country’s economy back on track. He was credited with negotiating a $3bn loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but as poverty rose to 25% over the past two years, he became deeply unpopular for austerity policies that were seen to hit the poorest.
Claim: Ranil Wickremesinghe Contest the Presidential Election Under the “Heart” Symbol !! (Social Media Users, 2024-07-31)
Evidence (2024-09-21): Back then, the former Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled the nation after an economic crisis led to political chaos in the country. Ranil Wickremesinghe subsequently took over as the acting President. Wickremesinghe has been in office for two years now. [...] There are 38 candidates in the fray. According to the Associated Press, it is largely a three-way contest between incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Marxist-leaning lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa. [...] 1. Ranil Wickremesinghe: He is a six-time prime minister of Sri Lanka. Days after taking over as an acting president, he was officially elected as the President by a parliamentary vote in July 2022 to cover the remainder of Rajapaksa’s five-year term. Now, Wickremesinghe is seeking another term to strengthen the gains.
Claim: Ranil Wickremesinghe Contest the Presidential Election Under the “Heart” Symbol !! (Social Media Users, 2024-07-31)
Evidence (2024-09-21): At the forefront of the race is sitting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, fighting for re-election. However, he faces competition from two other political heavyweights. The 75-year-old Wickremesinghe succeeded former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled in 2022 as the country's economy hit rock-bottom and Sri-Lankans launched massive protests against the government. President Wickremesinghe has garnered the people's goodwill earlier as a six-time prime minister and for his role in negotiating an IMF bailout for the struggling country.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-08-13): The claim that it is illegal for Anura Kumara Dissanayake to lead both JVP and NPP is false. There is no constitutional or legal provision that restricts an individual from holding leadership positions in two political parties simultaneously. The Election Commission’s actions are in accordance with the law, and the ongoing court case lacks a valid legal basis according to the Attorney General.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-09-23): Anura Kumara Dissanayake leads both the National People’s Power alliance, or NPP, and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or JVP. Rooted in Marxist ideology, the JVP was founded in the 1960s with the aim of seizing power through a socialist revolution. But after two failed armed uprisings in 1971 and 1987-89 – which resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of lives – the party shifted toward democratic politics and has remained so for over three decades. [...] In 2019, under Dissanayake’s leadership, the NPP was formed as a socialist alliance with several other organizations. While the JVP continues to adhere to Marxist principles, the NPP adopted a center-left, social democratic platform – aiming to attract broader public support. [...] As a leader from a Marxist party, Dissanayake will likely pursue policies to reflect collective decisions made by the politburos and central committees of the NPP and JVP, rather than his individual views. He advocates for an economic system where activities are coordinated through a central government plan, emphasizing the importance of "economic democracy."
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-09-28): A fortnight later, when the votes were counted, Anura won a clear mandate, beating key challengers like Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya and Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party. He was sworn in on September 23. [...] Anura leads the National People’s Power (NPP), a coalition of leftist political parties and socialist groups. He also heads the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the leading party in the coalition. Born on November 24, 1968, in Anuradhapura district to a daily-wage worker and a homemaker, Anura was a rebel during his student days. The murder of his first cousin, a JVP member, and the torching of his house after the JVP insurrection in the late 1980s, furthered his resolve to become active in politics. He was appointed to the central working committee of the JVP in 1995, and three years later, he made it to the party’s political bureau. When Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party formed the government in the early 2000s, he was part of it as agriculture minister. [...] Anura’s work will be hampered if the JVP and the NPP fail to win enough seats to run the parliament. On September 24, he dissolved the 225-member house in which his coalition had just four MPs, including himself. Fresh elections will be held on November 14, almost a year ahead of schedule, and the new session will start on November 21. Anura appointed JVP MP and former academic Harini Amarasuriya as the new prime minister, who would share ministerial responsibilities with two other JVP parliament members.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-10-02): In his first address to the nation on September 25, the presidential candidate of Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power coalition, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who was sworn in as President on September 23, did a Vajpayee: he read out from a prepared text, haltingly, and seemed completely out of sorts. [...] Even during the aragalaya (struggle) in 2022 against the gross mismanagement of the economy, Dissanayake was not a prominent face. Although it was suspected that the party he leads, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), had a role in the agitations, Dissanayake was comfortable allowing the "organic" protest to gather pace and direction on its own and did not seek to take ownership. [...] Also Read | Anura Kumara Dissanayake is Sri Lanka’s new President
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-10-07): With the ban on JVP being lifted in 1994 by the government of Sri Lanka, Dissanayake entered full-time politics as the national organiser of the Socialist Students Association and a member of the JVP Central Working Committee. He was then appointed to the JVP politburo in 1998 and entered parliament from the national list in 2000. He was elected to parliament in 2004 and served as Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation from 2004 to 2005. In 2014, he became the leader of the JVP and served as Chief Opposition Whip from 2015 to 2018. In 2019, he became the founding leader of the National People's Power (NPP).[1] He was elected as President of Sri Lanka on 22 September 2024, becoming the first president to be elected from a third party.[2] [...] References [edit]- ^ "Anura Kumara Dissanayake is new JVP leader". Daily Mirror. 2 February 2014. Archived from the original on 23 September 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2024. [...] - ^ "NPPM Declares JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake As Its 2019 Presidential Candidate". Colombo Telegraph. 18 August 2019. Archived from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-09-24): Dissanayake, who ran as head of the Marxist-leaning National People's Power coalition, defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and 36 other candidates in Saturday's vote. [...] The 55-year-old, popularly known as AKD, leads the National People's Power (NPP) alliance, which includes his party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), or People's Liberation Front. Dissanayake gained prominence as a student leader before becoming a part of JVP's central committee in 1997. He later entered Parliament and became a cabinet minister in President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's government.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-10-06): In September, Sri Lankans broke their faith with the island’s political elites and elected left-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the National Peoples’ Power (NPP). The economic collapse, hardships placed on the people and the governance crisis resulting in public protests changed the island’s political future. [...] With the September victory, the JVP, NPP’s main constituent partner, has ended years of political stagnation and been propelled to lead a nation that requires complete rebuilding. For its own part, the JVP/NPP has risen from the ashes, increasing its support base from a mere 3 percent to 42 percent last month. [...] The JVP/NPP’s main Achilles heel is its inability to address Sri Lanka’s minorities, making up 20 percent of the electorate. Despite recent modernisations and the influx of professional women into politics and the appointment of a female PM after 24 years, the president’s party does not relate well to ethno-religious minorities. If this drawback were addressed, Dissanayake would have cleared the 50 percent plus 1 mark without hindrance.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-10-01): The "Pearl of the Indian Ocean" – Sri Lanka – may yet become a bone of contention between India and China, following the September 21 presidential election that catapulted Anura Kumara Dissanayake into the top job. [...] The Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the extreme left party that Dissanayake leads, has been labeled as pro-Chinese in its approach to foreign policy and is often described as an outfit that continues to oppose policies involving neighboring India. Suffice it to say that the JVP was opposed to Indian military intervention in the island nation’s civil war in the late 1980s. Compared to Dissanayaka’s opponents in the run-up to the presidential race, the NPP’s foreign policy is not being articulated clearly, creating uncertainty about how the new leadership would approach the neighbors and maintain old diplomatic relations with India and China.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-10-05): Anura Kumara Dissanayake (born November 24, 1968, Thambuttegama, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]) is the ninth executive president of Sri Lanka (2024– ) and leader of the leftist People’s Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna; JVP). Dissanayake’s election marks a major turning point in Sri Lankan politics. Unlike most previous presidents, he does not come from a political family. Additionally, the JVP has a controversial past because of its violent Marxist insurrections in the 1970s and ’80s, for which Dissanayake has apologized since becoming party leader in 2014. His victory in the presidential election reflects public frustration in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s 2022 economic collapse, as well as a desire to break away from the country’s traditional political elite. [...] Dissanayake entered the Sri Lankan parliament in 2000 as a representative of the JVP, and he has continued to work in the parliament ever since. From 2004 to 2005 he served as Sri Lanka’s minister of agriculture, livestock, lands, and irrigation. He became leader of the JVP in 2014, and shortly afterward he began to rehabilitate the party’s image, apologizing for the excesses of the JVP’s insurrections in the ’70s and ’80s and stating in an interview with the Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka) that the party had rejected violence:
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-09-30): President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Historic Win and his Promising Start by Rajan Philips [...] In electoral politics, the first steps after victory go a long way in showing the sincerity, the commitment, and the ability of the winner and the winning party to follow the people’s mandate, honour their trust, and deliver on the electoral promises. So far, as the newly minted President, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka has been making all the right moves and avoiding obvious mis-steps. His decisions are good outcomes forced by the virtue of necessity, on the one hand, and constrained by his own commitments, on the other. His first steps are both laudable and promising. [...] One of the concerns of the Western bloc of countries and India in particular was the foreign policy orientation of the NPP and its presidential candidate. The surmise was that with the NPP’s core constituent the JVP, being a Marxist-Leninist party as stated on its website, that the NPP would be tilted towards countries with a similar ideology. In the aftermath of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s victory, the international media gave credence to the view that the government would tilt towards China and Russia, which have been long term allies of Sri Lanka, especially during the period of war and when it came to human rights issues in the context of that war.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-09-22): The 55-year-old Dissanayake heads the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, which includes his Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), or People's Liberation Front - a party that has traditionally backed strong state intervention and lower taxes, and campaigned for leftist economic policies. [...] The NPP and Dissanayake capitalised on this sentiment, as many in the country saw him as someone outside the old order. [...] Dissanayake, who was elected to the JVP’s central committee in 1997 and became its leader in 2008, has since apologised for the party’s violence. But his victory at the polls raises questions as to what role the JVP might play in Sri Lankan politics going forward.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-09-25): "Many non-partisan people who took part in ‘Aragalaya’ [struggle in Sinhalese] are now with the National Peoples Power [NPP]," Jayasanka told Al Jazeera on Tuesday, a day after Dissanayake, who leads the NPP alliance, was sworn in as the country’s ninth president. [...] Dissanayake and his Stalinist political party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), played an active role during the 2022 protests. The controversial party led two insurrections against the Sri Lankan state in the 1970s and 1980s, during which 80,000 people were killed. The party has since renounced violence and Dissanayake has apologised for their crimes. [...] "So I feel this as a protest vote against those leaders, including the leaders of Muslim political parties, than a vote for Anura Kumara [Dissanayake]. But I don’t believe everything will be resolved overnight simply because he is now in power."
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-10-08): If Sri Lankans rally behind Dissanayake and the NPP at the forthcoming general elections, then the IMF may need to listen – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara 21 September was a day of many firsts in Sri Lanka. Millions of people went to the polls to vote in the first Presidential elections since mass protests forced the country’s last elected president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, from office in 2022. 1, 2 [...] A count of the second-choice votes revealed the biggest shock in decades. In Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sri Lankans for the first time elected a candidate who does not belong to the two major parties that have dominated the country’s politics since independence in 1948.3 Dissanayake leads the National People’s Power alliance (NPP), which includes his Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) – a party known for its leftwing policies.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-10-07): Sri Lanka elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake as its new president on September 21, marking the first time in the country’s history that a candidate outside the two major political parties has won the presidency. Dissanayake, representing the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, defeated candidates from the long-dominant United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The election comes as Sri Lanka continues to grapple with economic challenges following its 2022 debt default. In an interview with JURIST Senior Editor for Long Form Content Pitasanna Shanmugathas, researcher Balasingham Skanthakumar, a member of the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka and the editor of the Colombo-based Polity magazine, discusses the implications of this political shift for the South Asian nation [...] Balasingham Skanthakumar: Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s victory as the candidate of the center-left National People’s Power (NPP) coalition is highly significant for symbolic and substantive reasons. His predecessors have been from the social and political elite that has mis-ruled Sri Lanka since independence from Britain in 1948. Some were born into that elite, while a couple (Ranasinghe Premadasa, Maithripala Sirisena) made their way into it through the business of politics before they occupied the presidency. In contrast, Dissanayaka’s political life has been as an outsider and critic of that elite.
Claim: Anura Kumara Dissanayake to Lead Both JVP and NPP Illegally !! (Social Media Users, 2024-08-13)
Evidence (2024-09-28): National People’s Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as the ninth executive president of Sri Lanka on September 23. In the presidential election held on September 21, the NPP leader polled 5,740,179 votes (5,634,915 votes in the first count and 105,264 more votes in the second count). He secured close to 43 percent of the valid vote. [...] Over the past decade, Dissanayake has demonstrated a pragmatic and adaptive political style. When he assumed leadership of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the main party in the NPP coalition, it had a reputation for radical politics. Since the 1970s, the JVP has undergone significant transformations, evolving from an anti-imperialist, socialist party that sought to overthrow capitalism to a Sinhala-nationalist platform in the 1980s, opposing Tamil self-rule and India’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict. The party was banned for trumped up charges of being involved in the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom but re-entered mainstream politics in 1994. Under Dissanayake’s leadership, the JVP has broadened its appeal, reaching out to the middle class and diaspora communities. Although critics have accused it of abandoning its socialist roots, the NPP’s focus on grassroots mobilization gained momentum, particularly during the 2022 protests that led to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation. Despite lackluster performances in the 2019 presidential and 2020 parliamentary elections, where it was mocked as the "3 percent party," the NPP rebranded itself as a voice for the people, capitalizing on public frustration with the political establishment and advocating for systemic change.