Ceylonese parliamentary election, March 1960
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General elections were held in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in March 1960.
[edit] Background
By 1960, Ceylon's governing Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) coalition was falling apart. The Marxist parties that were junior partners of the coalition had broken with the dominant Sri Lanka Freedom Party over the issue of paddy lands. The Marxist VLSSP formed a new party that took the name MEP. The SLFP itself had been torn by an internal power struggle since the death of its leader, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the previous year.
Both the United National Party and the SLFP campaigned on a strongly anti-Tamil line, promising to repatriate the estate Tamils to India, and implement the Sinhala Only Act.
[edit] Results
Dudley Senanayake and the UNP obtained a plurality of seats, but without a majority could not form a stable government. This led to the July 1960 elections.
| Parties | Votes | % | Seats | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United National Party | 909,043 | 29.4 | 50 | ||
| Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 647,175 | 20.9 | 46 | ||
| Federal Party | 176,444 | 5.5 | 15 | ||
| Lanka Sama Samaja Party | 325,286 | 10.5 | 10 | ||
| Mahajana Eksath Peramuna | 324,332 | 10.5 | 10 | ||
| Prajathanthravadi Pakshaya | 135,138 | 4.4 | 4 | ||
| Communist Party | 147,612 | 4.8 | 3 | ||
| Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna | 11,201 | 0.3 | 2 | ||
| Tamil Congress | 38,275 | 1.2 | 1 | ||
| Others | 326,914 | 10.5 | 10 | ||
| Totals | 2,889,282 | 100.0 | 151 | ||
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