Parliamentary elections were held in Ceylon on 19 March 1960.

Quick Facts 151 seats in the House of Representatives of Ceylon 76 seats were needed for a majority, First party ...

March 1960 Ceylonese parliamentary election

← 1956 19 March 1960 July 1960 →
← outgoing members
151 seats in the House of Representatives of Ceylon 76 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Dudley Senanayake C. P. de Silva Party UNP SLFP Leader since 1957 1960 Leader's seat Dedigama Minneriya Last election 27.91%, 8 seats 39.52%, 51 seats[lower-alpha 1] Seats won 50 46 Seat change 42 5 Popular vote 909,043 647,175 Percentage 29.89% 21.28%
Prime Minister before election Wijeyananda Dahanayake Mahajana Eksath Peramuna Prime Minister-designate Dudley Senanayake UNP

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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 Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party 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.^{[citation needed]}

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. ^[1][2]