A group of civil organisations has formed a common front to campaign against the government’s proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, opening a new front in the dispute over the plan to extend the retirement age of senior judges.
The platform, named the Free Operations Centre, was set up with the blessing of the Joint Opposition and several other political parties, Daily Mirror reported. Its stated aims are to oppose the 22nd Amendment and to preserve multi-party democracy.
The Free Lawyers Association, the group Dinana Dakuna and a number of trade unions have joined the centre.
Maithri Gunaratne, convenor of the Free Lawyers Association, said all political parties were welcome to join. He said the newly opened centre would organise protests and agitation programmes in the future.
A widening dispute
The move extends opposition to the amendment beyond the professional legal bodies that have led it so far. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has said it will use every available legal avenue to oppose the retirement age plan, after a meeting with the President ended without agreement.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has defended the proposal as one component of a broader justice sector overhaul covering the police, the anti-corruption commission and the Attorney General’s Department, and has said the amendment was not framed with any individual or group in mind.
No date has been announced for the centre’s first protest, and Daily Mirror did not name the trade unions or the other political parties said to be backing it.
