Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has said the shrinking of democratic space poses a threat as severe as Cyclone Ditwah, accusing the government of attempting to deal a fatal blow to democratic rights through the proposed 22nd Constitutional Amendment, Hiru News reported.

He was speaking at an event to hand over housing to 100 families affected by the cyclone — making the comparison at a disaster-recovery event rather than a political rally.

The constitutional argument

Premadasa said the amendment forms part of a conspiracy to undermine the three pillars of democracy — the legislature, executive and judiciary — and that the government is attempting to weaken the judiciary and render it subservient to the executive.

He said the measure restricts democratic space and paves the way for single-party rule and authoritarian government, and called for its defeat. Failure to stop it, he said, would strip 22 million citizens of individual freedoms, political rights and freedom of expression, and destroy the checks and balances between the branches of state.

The remarks extend a position the Opposition has pressed through several channels this month, including a Colombo Fort protest on September 13. Parliament is scheduled to take up the amendment alongside the Judicature Act on September 24 and 25, and the regional legal body LAWASIA has separately raised procedural concerns over how the matter has been handled.

On disaster management

Premadasa, who co-chairs the Parliamentary Forum on Climate Change, said experts have warned of severe impacts from El Niño and La Niña, and that impending droughts, floods and landslides could cripple sectors including hydroelectric power generation.

He described Sri Lanka’s disaster management framework as outdated and urged the government to draw lessons from both the tsunami and Cyclone Ditwah, calling for the immediate implementation of a proactive, modernised mechanism to reduce disaster risk before events occur rather than after.

The warning runs close to ground the government has covered: divisional disaster units and drills in landslide-prone districts were ordered earlier this week on the same El Niño forecasts.

Not reported

Hiru News does not say where the handover took place, which district the 100 families are from, or who funded the housing. It gives no government response to either the constitutional or the disaster-management criticism.

Single-source note. No other verified newsroom’s own report on this event could be dated within the freshness window at the time of writing.