![\"\"](\"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Sajith-600x400.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOpposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has questioned President Anura Kumara Dissanayake over his apparent reversal on the need for a referendum, having previously demanded one over the 20th Amendment while now dismissing its necessity for the proposed 22nd Amendment.<\/p>\n
The Opposition Leader raised the issue while addressing a public gathering in Rattota, Matale yesterday.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that when the previous government introduced the 20th Amendment, Dissanayake, then serving in the opposition, had insisted on a referendum in addition to the two-thirds parliamentary majority required for its passage.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He questioned why government representatives were now claiming that no such referendum was necessary for the proposed 22nd Amendment, asking the President to explain the change in position and why the same standard applied to the 20th Amendment was not being applied consistently to the current constitutional reform.<\/p>\n
The Opposition Leader alleged that it could undermine the independence of the judiciary and further weaken the rule of law, warning that this was already under considerable strain given daily reports of shootings across the country.<\/p>\n
He also challenged the government’s “Two years strong – Progress for all” campaign theme, alleging that several election promises remained unfulfilled.<\/p>\n
He recalled pledges on fuel prices and a 32 percent reduction in electricity tariffs, as well as raising concerns over ongoing medicine shortages and lengthy waiting lists for essential surgeries.<\/p>\n
He noted that while the past two years may have benefited the President and his government, they had not served the interests of the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has questioned President Anura Kumara Dissanayake over his apparent reversal on the need for a referendum, having previously demanded one over the 20th Amendment while now dismissing its necessity for the proposed 22nd Amendment. The Opposition Leader raised the issue while addressing a public gathering in Rattota, Matale yesterday. He pointed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local","category-breaking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1700,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions\/1700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eelam24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}