1952 Ceylonese parliamentary election

1952 Ceylonese parliamentary election

24–30 May 1952
95 seats in the House of Representatives of Ceylon 48 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Dudley Senanayake S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike N.M. Perera Party UNP SLFP LSSP Leader since 1952 1951 1945 Leader's seat Dedigama Attanagalla Ruwanwella Last election 39.81%, 42 seats – 10.81%, 10 seats Seats won 54 9 9 Seat change 12 New 1 Popular vote 1,026,005 361,250 305,133 Percentage 44.08% 15.52% 13.11%
Prime Minister before election Dudley Senanayake UNP Prime Minister-designate Dudley Senanayake UNP

Parliamentary elections were held in Ceylon in 1952. It is notable for being the second and final election overseen and administered by the Department of Parliamentary Elections before its merger in 1955.

Background

Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake died in March 1952, and was succeeded by his son, Dudley. The national wave of mourning for Ceylon's first prime minister greatly boosted the UNP's fortunes.

The 1952 election was the first contested by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which had broken away from the UNP on a platform of Sinhala nationalism, and the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Federal Party), which split from the All Ceylon Tamil Congress over joining the UNP government.

Results

Because the estate Tamils had been stripped of their citizenship by the Senanayake government, the Ceylon Indian Congress, which most of them had supported, was eliminated from Parliament and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party lost seats. The UNP won a majority, mainly at the cost of the CIC and the LSSP.

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	United National Party	1,026,005	44.08	54
	Sri Lanka Freedom Party	361,250	15.52	9
	Lanka Sama Samaja Party	305,133	13.11	9
	CPC–VLSSP	134,528	5.78	4
	All Ceylon Tamil Congress	64,512	2.77	4
	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi	45,331	1.95	2
	Republican Party	33,001	1.42	0
	Ceylon Labour Party	27,096	1.16	1
	Buddhist Republican Party	3,987	0.17	0
	Independents	326,783	14.04	12
Total		2,327,626	100.00	95
Total votes		2,114,615	–
Registered voters/turnout		2,990,912	70.70
Source: Nohlen et al.

References

• "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1952" (PDF). Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015.
• "1952 General Election Results". LankaNewspapers.com. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012.
• "Table 32 Parliament Election (1952)". Sri Lanka Statistics. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
• Rajasingham, K. T. (10 November 2001). "Chapter 14: Post-colonial realignment of political forces". Asia Times. Sri Lanka: The Untold Story. Archived from the original on 3 January 2002.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)