President misinformed on disabilityTo evaluate the president’s statement on Twitter made after the opening of the Ayati Centre, FactCheck consulted the most recent Population and Housing Census (PHC) compiled in 2011 by the Department of Census and

The MP in his statement is attempting to quantify the net loss, through the state-owned airlines, which then translates into additional national debt.

MP Udaya Gammanpila claims that treating the national anthem as existing in any language other than Sinhala is a violation of the constitution because Article 7 of the constitution gives the national anthem as “Sri Lanka Maatha” in Sinhala. To ch

MP Sajith Premadasa makes three claims: (1) representation of women in the current parliament is 5.8%; (2) the number of women in parliament has been low over time; and (3) the 2015- 2019 government increased representation of women in local authorit

Minister Keheliya Rambukwella’s figures present a fourfold increase in GDP during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency. The minister is correct in the figures he cites. However, this fact check will go on to explain why stating GDP in USD instead of LK

To check this claim, FactCheck consulted the Urban Transport System Development Project for Colombo Metropolitan Region and Suburbs (CoMTrans) report published in 2014 which is publicly available on the Ministry of Transport website. The survey data

FactCheck assessed the MP’s claim using the latest data from the Grave Crimes Abstract (GCA) from the Sri Lanka Police and the Prison Statistics of Sri Lanka report 2019. Exhibit 1 shows that the numbers provided by the MP are mostly correct, barr

To check this claim, first we consulted the University Grants Commission (UGC) 2018 statistics on undergraduate enrolment in universities and higher educational institutions. This provides statistics only for institutions established under the Univer

On 5th December 2019, FactCheck published, in the Daily Mirror, a statement reported as being made by State Minister Nimal Lanza in the Divaina newspaper on 6 September 2019. FactCheck classified Minister Lanza’s statement as FALSE. It has been bro

​In the above statement, MP Gammanpila makes two claims: that (i) the Muslim (Sri Lankan Moor) population will exceed 12% of the total population in the next 10 years (i.e. by 2029); and (ii) the Sinhala population is declining and is under threat

The claim cited from last week has been often repeated by MP Wimal Weerawansa, including in parliament on July 31st, where he implies that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the United States has proposed an economic corridor in Sri Lanka

To assess this claim, we used data from the Grave Crimes Abstract (GCA) from the Sri Lanka Police. Since the MP specified “girls”, we considered reported cases of rape of women under 16, which is classified as statutory rape. GCA data records th

In his statement, SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa claims that the Mahinda Rajapaksa government released 90% of military occupied land, after the end of the war. To verify this claim, we consulted data published by the Secretariat for C

In the above statement, State Minister of Transport & Civil Aviation provides statistics to claim that there has been a large increase in the present government’s budget commitment to free healthcare, and that it is as a significant proportion of s

Minister Bathiudeen claims creditable export performance by citing USD 1.3 billion in export revenue from three sub-sectors. We checked this claim using data available from the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB). Even though export statistics a

Minister of Housing, Construction and Cultural Affairs Sajith Premadasa’s statement suggests that the gap in income share between the richest and poorest quintiles in the country is 50% of total household income.

In the above statement the MP claims that by passing the Active Liability Management Act the government can: 01.Obtain foreign loans without any annual limit. 02.Borrow any amount outside [the provisions of] the budget.

On 11 July 2019, Mawbima reported MP Rajapaksa making the above statement which claims with specific numbers that starting with 560,000 candidates sitting the G.C.E. (O.L) exam, only 28,000 (that is about 5%) succeed in gaining university entrance.

We consulted two sources to verify this claim. (1) The Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms (SCRM), and (2) Sixth periodic report submitted by Sri Lanka to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

In the above statement, the prime minister is making a negative attribution to Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency by citing a fall in export share of GDP by 12 percentage points, from 30% to 18%.

On 19 June 2019, the Daily FT newspaper quoted the state minister of finance making the above statement in Parliament. Since the statement does not specify a time period for this claim, FactCheck evaluated it for each year since the change in governm

FactCheck investigated the MP’s claim in three ways: through (1) information in the public domain; (2) directly requesting MP Jayakody for his source of information; and (3) publicly inviting verification of this claim on

On 4 June 2019, Divaina reported President Maithripala Sirisena making the following claim: The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) incur losses in the tens of millions [of rupees] per day.

On 15 May 2019, Dinamina reported Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara making the following statement: Deaths reported as being due to drowning are about 800 annually.

On 28 May 2019, Divaina reported that MP Vijitha Herath made the following claim:

On 22 May 2019, Dinamina reported State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne making the following statement. Sri Lanka’s tourism sector accounts for 5% of gr

On 02 April 2019, Lankadeepa reported that MP Udaya Gammanpila made the following claims in parliament:

Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera made the following claims: Foreign reserves were $7.6 billion, equal to four months of imports;

To assess this claim, we consulted information published by the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms (SCRM). Exhibit 1 shows that 63,258 acres of state-owned land had been released as at 12 March 2019, as the minister stated.

On 28 March 2019, Dinamina reported President Maithripala Sirisena making the following: