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The silent revolution of 1956
While arrangements were being made to hold the first General Election under the Soulbury Constitution, an announcement was made in the House of Commons on June 18, 1947 that as soon as negotiations were concluded and necessary agreements were decided upon, immediate steps would be taken "to confer upon Ceylon fully responsible status within the British Commonwealth of Nations". This meant the grant of Dominion Status, which took effect on February 4, 1948.

The first Parliament continued to function even after Independence. The BLP (Bolshevick Leninist Party) led by Dr Colvin R. de Silva joined hands with the LSSP in 1950 resulting in Philip Gunawardena breaking away from the LSSP and forming his own party - Viplavakari Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP). The five members of the Communist Party joined the VLSSP.

With the leader of the Tamil Congress G.G. Ponnambalam (Jaffna) accepting a Cabinet portfolio, a split occurred with S.J.V. Chelvanayagam (Kankesanthurai) breaking away and forming the Federal Party.

The Government faced its first crisis when Leader of the House and Minister of Local Government & Health S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike resigned on July 10, 1951 following the refusal by the government to accept certain resolutions passed by the Sinhala Maha Sabha (of which Bandaranaike was the President) at the annual sessions held at Madampe. The resolutions related to Buddhism, Sinhala as the official language and ayurveda, which they wanted included as part of the UNP's programme. Five other MPs - A.P. Jayasuriya (Horana), George R. de Silva (Colombo North), Jayaweera Kuruppu (Balangoda), D. S. Gunasekera (Udugama) and D. A. Rajapakse (Beliatta) - also crossed over.

On September 2, 1951, Bandaranaike formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) at the Colombo Town Hall to serve as "a middle party between the UNP on the extreme right, and the Marxists on the extreme left." While Bandaranaike was elected President, B. H. Aluvihare, Badi-ud-din Mahmud and S. Thangarajah were appointed Joint Secretaries.

The death of Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake on March 23, 1952 following a fall from the horse he was riding at Galle Face Green saw his son, Minister of Agriculture & Lands Dudley Senanayake becoming Prime Minister. He decided to seek a fresh mandate and dissolved Parliament. On Nomination Day - April 28, 306 candidates from seven political parties (221) and Independents (85) handed in their nominations. Elections were held on four days between May 24 and 30 as against 19 at the 1947 General Election. As in the previous election, candidates were allotted symbols, which were printed on the ballot paper opposite the candidate's names.

At least three new parties entered the fray. The SLFP formed just seven months earlier put forward 48 candidates - second only to the UNP which had 81. The SLFP won 9 seats polling 361,251 votes. The VLSSP fielded 19 winning four seats and the Federal Party won two from seven candidates.

The UNP recorded a landslide victory gaining 54 seats in the 101 member House of Representatives. This increased to 67 when a number of Tamil Congress and Independent members joined the government ranks.

A significant feature was that over 90% of persons of Indian origin who had voted in the 1947 election had lost their right to vote as a result of the 1949 Citizenship law.

Polling 38,478 votes at Attanagalla, once again Bandaranaike recorded the highest number of votes and also the largest majority (32,544). He became Leader of the Opposition.

When Parliament met on June 9, 1952, former Speaker Albert F. Peiris was unanimously elected Speaker. Although he came forward to the Nattandiya seat as "Mr Speaker seeking re-election" hoping that following British tradition no party would contest him, an Independent, Hugh Fernando (who was to become Speaker in a later Parliament) stood against him and narrowly lost by 306 votes.

Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake soon faced an economic and foreign exchange crisis. The Left parties organised a countrywide hartal on August 12, following an increase in the price of rice amidst other austerity measures adopted by the government. An emergency was declared and the army was called out to handle the situation. Although the situation was brought under control, a visibly moved Prime Minister announced his resignation on October 12. He was succeeded by Sir John Kotelawela, Leader of the House. Questions of language and religion began to emerge during Sir John's tenure of office. The key issue related to making Sinhala the official language.

On February 18, 1956, the UNP at its annual sessions in Kelaniya resolved that Sinhala should be the State language. Sir John decided to get a mandate to implement the resolution and advised the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament and hold elections. The anti-UNP forces found it the most opportune moment to join hands and defeat the government.

The SLFP took the initiative in forming the 'Mahajana Eksath Peramuna' (MEP) with Philip Gunawardena's VLSSP and W. Dahanayaka's 'Sinhala Bhasha Peramuna'. An electoral pact was also arranged between the MEP and the LSSP & CP.

Third Parliament
At the 1956 General Election for the Third Parliament, for the first time, each political party was allotted a symbol. Each Independent candidate could select a symbol from among those, which were not given to the parties. The number of Independents contesting the elections further dwindled with only 64 contesting, as against 71 in 1952 and 181 in 1947.

The elections were confined to three days - April 3,5 and 10. Two hundred and forty nine candidates handed in their nominations with one - R.G. Senanayake, sitting member of Dambadeniya contesting two constituencies (Dambadeniya & Kelaniya) as an Independent. He was UNP Minister of Trade & Commerce but resigned from the Cabinet and was later expelled from the party just prior to the election. He created history by winning both seats and at Kelaniya, he defeated UNP stalwart J.R. Jayewardene who was Leader of the House after Sir John became Prime Minister.

The trend became obvious when on the first day itself the MEP won 27 seats out of 36 polled. The UNP thus lost 52 seats. Only two - Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawela (Dodangaslanda) & Education Minister M. D. Banda (Maturata) out of 12 UNP ministers were returned.

The SLFP/MEP leader maintained his record of winning with the biggest majority, polling 45,016 votes. Out of his two opponents UNP's A. W. G. Seneviratne collected 3,019 votes while I. Tinsi (Independent) got 621 votes. Out of the 51 MEP MPs, 43 were from the SLFP. The new Prime Minister, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was sworn in on April 12.

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