A slip of the tongue landed Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera in an embarrassing situation when he said the Sajith Premadasa camp would lose the upcoming Presidential election leaving even the Rajapaksa camp perplexed.

Samaraweera intended to say the Premadasa camp would win the election with a resounding margin, leaving their political opponents perplexed. However, Samaraweera, addressing a rally in Matara organized in support of UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa, ended up saying quite the opposite.

The rally whose chief architect was Samaraweera was organized to promote Premadasa as a potential Presidential candidate within the UNP.

Speaking at the rally. Samaraweera identified Premadasa as the next President of Sri Lanka.

Many opposition political activists, however, took to Twitter after the rally and ridiculed Samaraweera for his slip of the tongue describing it as one of the rare moments where the senior UNP politician demonstrated honesty.