Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva stated that he has never seen a ‘dummy Sirisena’ being used by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa in his election campaign in the recently concluded presidential election.

Participating in the ‘Sathyagaraya’ political talk show on ITN on Thursday evening, de Silva made this observation when he was asked to comment on the ethics of using such campaign tactics. De Silva was a vocal supporter of the former president during the campaign.

Rathnayake Arachchige Sirisena, the Maithripala Sirisena lookalike who contested the presidential election is a resident of Medamulana – the village where President Mahinda Rajapaksa was born and grew up in.

During the presidential election period, this dummy Sirisena impersonated Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena on TV ads, making a mockery of the entire electoral process. Some of his election advertisements were run by a bogus organization called 'R. A. Sirisena Foundation’

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, when he went to cast his vote on January 08, also took R.A. Sirisena with him, along with members of the former first family. R.A. Sirisena wore a Modi-like jack, strongly resembling presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena.

Dummy Sirisena was the person who impersonated Maithripala Sirisena in the popular political comedy 'And Company', aired by Swarnawahini.

After the election it came to be known that a state media station spent nearly Rs. 2 million to "train" the dummy presidential candidate who looked like President Maithripala Sirisena.