July 1960 Ceylonese parliamentary election

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July 1960 Ceylonese parliamentary election
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←  March 1960 20 July 1960 1965  →
151 seats in the House of Representatives of Ceylon
76 seats were needed for a majority
 First partySecond party
  Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Ceylon 1960 (cropped).PNG Dudley Shelton Senanayaka (1911-1973).jpg
Leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike Dudley Senanayake
Party SLFP UNP
Leader since19601957
Leader's seatn/a Dedigama
Last election21.28%, 46 seats29.89%, 50 seats
Seats won7530
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 29Decrease2.svg 20
Popular vote1,022,1711,144,166
Percentage33.22%37.19%
SwingIncrease2.svg 11.94ppIncrease2.svg 7.30pp
Prime Minister before election

Dudley Senanayake
UNP

Prime Minister-designate

Sirimavo Bandaranaike
SLFP

Snap parliamentary elections were held in Ceylon in July 1960.

Contents

Background

The March 1960 election had left neither of Ceylon's two major parties with a majority, so another election was inevitable.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which had been in disarray since the murder of its leader S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike the previous year, settled on his widow, Sirimavo, as its new leader. She pledged to continue her husband's policies, notably the Sinhala Only Act, and to proceed with repatriation of the estate Tamils to India. However, she promised to reach a compromise with the Federal Party.

The United National Party, led by Dudley Senanayake, refused to compromise with the Federal Party. It also differed with the SLFP over economic policy. The SLFP called for a socialist program of nationalization of both private enterprises and religious schools; the UNP preferred to leave both in private hands.

Results

The SLFP obtained a bare majority, despite getting a lower share of the popular vote than the UNP, and Mrs. Bandaranaike became prime minister. This was the first time in history a woman led her party to victory in a general election and thus becoming prime minister.

PartyVotes%Seats
United National Party 1,144,16637.1930
Sri Lanka Freedom Party 1,022,17133.2275
Lanka Sama Samaja Party 224,9957.3112
Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi 213,7336.9516
Mahajana Eksath Peramuna 106,8163.473
Communist Party of Ceylon 90,2192.934
All Ceylon Tamil Congress 46,8041.521
Lanka Democratic Party 30,2070.982
National Liberation Front 14,0300.462
Others183,7285.976
Total3,076,869100.00151
Registered voters/turnout3,724,50775.9
Source: Nohlen et al. [1]

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References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, pp710–722 ISBN   0-19-924958-X
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