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# Why Sumanthiran Didn’t Sign: Opposition Leaders Tell a Different Story
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/featured/why-sumanthiran-didnt-sign-opposition-leaders-tell-a-different-story/
- Published: 2026-09-18T04:18:30.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-18T04:29:50.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: September 2026

**COLOMBO, Sri Lanka —** Several opposition leaders who attended Thursday’s meeting against Sri Lanka’s proposed 22nd Amendment have disputed published accounts of [why M.A. Sumanthiran declined to sign a joint declaration](https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/sumanthiran-declines-to-sign-opposition-statement-on-22nd-amendment/), saying the explanation he gave inside the meeting was that he needed time to consult his party before committing it to the document.

*Jaffna Monitor* reported after the meeting that Mr. Sumanthiran, the general secretary of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, or ITAK, had declined to sign because he was unwilling to campaign for judicial independence alongside politicians whom he accused of having undermined it in the past.

That account, carried by a *Jaffna Monitor* correspondent, was also widely reported in the Tamil-language press.

But several opposition figures who were present at the meeting subsequently contacted *Jaffna Monitor* and disputed that account of what Mr. Sumanthiran had told participants.

They said Mr. Sumanthiran’s principal explanation at the meeting was that he had not been given sufficient time to consider the joint declaration and, as the general secretary of ITAK, could not sign such a document without first consulting his party.

The opposition figures acknowledged that Mr. Sumanthiran had briefly referred to previous challenges to judicial independence. But they said he did not present that issue as his reason for withholding his signature.

According to their account, his objection at the meeting was procedural rather than political: he needed to consult his party before signing a declaration issued in its name.

Mr. Sumanthiran has publicly maintained that ITAK is firmly opposed to the amendment and will vote against it in Parliament. Published accounts after Thursday’s meeting attributed to him a broader explanation: that he was unwilling to join a campaign for judicial independence with politicians whom he accused of having interfered with the judiciary in the past.

The meeting, held at the Janaki Hotel in Colombo under the banner of the “Freedom Struggle Front to Protect Democracy,” brought together opposition politicians, civic groups and civil society representatives seeking to mobilize opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment.

It ended with a joint declaration warning that the amendment threatened judicial independence, democratic institutions and citizens’ rights. Mr. Sumanthiran attended the meeting but did not sign it.