1947 Ceylonese parliamentary election
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95 seats in theHouse of Representatives of Ceylon 48 seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 61.3% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Parliamentary elections were held inCeylonbetween 23 August and 20 September 1947. They were the first elections overseen and administered by the newly formedDepartment of Parliamentary Elections.[1]
Background
[edit]This is considered the first national election held inSri Lanka(then known as Ceylon). Although it took place before independence was actually granted, it was the first election under theSoulbury Constitution.
Some of the major figures who had led theindependence strugglewere found in the right-wingUnited National Partyled byD.S. Senanayake.In opposition were theTrotskyistLanka Sama Samaja PartyandBolshevik Leninist Party of India,theCommunist Party of Ceylon,theCeylon Indian Congressand an array of independents.
Results
[edit]Senanayake's UNP fell short of a majority, but was able to form a government in coalition with theAll Ceylon Tamil Congress,which had taken most of the seats in theTamil-majority regions of the island.
Sri Lanka obtained fullindependenceas adominionin 1948. TheBritishnevertheless retained military bases in the country andEnglishremained as the official language along with much of the administrative system put in place by the British along with British officials.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
United National Party | 751,432 | 39.81 | 42 | |
Lanka Sama Samaja Party | 204,020 | 10.81 | 10 | |
BSP–BLP | 113,193 | 6.00 | 5 | |
All Ceylon Tamil Congress | 82,499 | 4.37 | 7 | |
Ceylon Indian Congress | 72,230 | 3.83 | 6 | |
Communist Party of Ceylon | 70,331 | 3.73 | 3 | |
Ceylon Labour Party | 38,932 | 2.06 | 1 | |
United Lanka Congress | 3,953 | 0.21 | 0 | |
Swaraj Party | 1,393 | 0.07 | 0 | |
Independents | 549,381 | 29.11 | 21 | |
Total | 1,887,364 | 100.00 | 95 | |
Total votes | 1,701,150 | – | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 3,048,145 | 55.81 | ||
Source: Nohlenet al.[2][a] |
Notes
[edit]- ^Actual turnout was slightly higher due toH. S. Ismail(UNP) being elected from Puttalam Electoral District without a contest.
References
[edit]- ^"Elections Department in the limelight".ft.lk. Daily Financial Times. 3 October 2015.Retrieved4 February2018.
- ^Dieter Nohlen,Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001)Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I,pp709–722ISBN0-19-924958-X
- "Result of Parliamentary General Election 1947"(PDF).Department of Elections, Sri Lanka. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 24 September 2015.
- "1947 General Election Results".LankaNewspapers. Archived fromthe originalon 10 March 2012.
- "Table 31 Parliament Election (1947)".Sri Lanka Statistics. 10 February 2009.
- Rajasingham, K. T. (20 October 2001)."Chapter 11: On the threshold of freedom".Sri Lanka: The Untold Story.Asia Times. Archived from the original on 8 November 2001.
{{cite web}}
:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Rajasingham, K. T. (27 October 2001)."Chapter 12: Tryst with independence".Sri Lanka: The Untold Story.Asia Times. Archived from the original on 3 January 2002.
{{cite web}}
:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)