July 1960 Ceylonese parliamentary election

5th Ceylonese parliamentary election

20 July 1960
151 seats to the House of Representatives of Ceylon 76 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike Dudley Senanayake Party SLFP UNP Leader since 1960 1957 Leader's seat n/a Dedigama Last election 46 Seats, 21.28% 50 Seats, 29.89% Seats won 75 30 Seat change 29 20 Popular vote 1,022,171 1,144,166 Percentage 33.22% 37.19%
Prime Minister before election Dudley Senanayake UNP Prime Minister-designate Sirimavo Bandaranaike SLFP

General elections were held in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in July 1960.

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.

The United National Party, led by Dudley Senanayake, had a similar position towards the island's minorities. Its differences with the SLFP were 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.

References

• "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1960-07-20" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka.
• "1960 July General Election Results". LankaNewspapers.com.
• "Table 35 Parliament Election (1960 July)". Sri Lanka Statistics. 10 February 2009.
• Rajasingham, K. T. (1 December 2001). "Chapter 17: Assassination of Bandaranaike". Sri Lanka: The Untold Story. Asia Times.
• Rajasingham, K. T. (8 December 2001). "Chapter 18: Srimavo - weeping arrogance". Sri Lanka: The Untold Story. Asia Times.