Ceylonese parliamentary election, 1970

7th Ceylonese parliamentary election

← 1965 27 May 1970 1977 →
151 seats to the House of Representatives of Ceylon 76 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike N. M. Perera Dudley Senanayake Party Sri Lanka Freedom Party Lanka Sama Samaja Party United National Party Leader since 1960 1945 1957 Leader's seat Attanagalla Yatiyantota Dedigama Last election 41 Seats, 30.18% 10 Seats, 7.47% 66 Seats, 39.31% Seats won 91 19 17 Seat change 50 9 49 Popular vote 1,839,979 433,224 1,892,525 Percentage 36.86% 8.68% 37.91%
Prime Minister before election Dudley Senanayake United National Party Prime Minister-designate Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sri Lanka Freedom Party

Dudley Senanayake
United National Party

Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Sri Lanka Freedom Party

General elections were held in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1970.

SLFP leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike had come to the conclusion that her party's best hope of power was forming a permanent alliance with Ceylon's Marxist parties. She assembled the SLFP, the Trotskyist LSSP, and the Communists into the United Front coalition. The UF's platform was called the Common Programme; it featured extensive nationalization, a more pro-Soviet foreign policy, expanded social programs, and abolition of the Soulbury constitution.

The UNP government of Dudley Senanayake had not made much headway with Ceylon's twin problems of inflation and unemployment. The UNP had become widely perceived as a party of the rich, out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people. The UF's socialist platform had much greater appeal.

The UF (with 49% of the vote) won an overwhelming majority, despite the UNP's plurality of the popular vote, due to the member parties running in different constituencies. The Tamil majority constituencies voted mainly for the two Tamil parties, one of which (the All Ceylon Tamil Congress), later joined the UF.

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