Nyasaland general election, 1956

General elections were held for the first time in Nyasaland on 15 March 1956.

Although the Legislative Council was created in 1907, its membership had previously been limited to government officials and members appointed by the Governor. The first public elections held in Nyasaland were for the Legislative Assembly of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953, although only 1,058 residents were eligible to vote.

Constitutional reforms in 1955 introduced two forms of elected members to the Legislative Council. The Nyasaland Ordinance was passed on 6 September 1955 by the Council, setting out the electoral system. The new Council consisted of eleven officials, five indirectly-elected seats for Africans and six elected seats for non-Africans. A proposal to have a reserved seat for the Asian population was rejected under pressure from the federal government.

The five African members were elected by the three African Provincial Councils; the Central and Southern Province Councils elected two members each, whilst the Northern Province Council elected one.

As with the 1953 federal elections, the non-African franchise was limited to British subject who were at least 21 years old, earned at least £200 a year or occupied property worth £250, and who had an "adequate" knowledge of English, being able to complete their registration form without assistance. The requirement to be a British subject disqualified the vast majority of the Asian and Coloured population; although at the time of the elections the European population was 6,732 and the Asian population was 8,504, only 338 Asians were able to register to vote, compared with 1,866 Europeans. Just six Coloureds also registered, giving a total of 2,210 registered voters. The six non-African members were elected from six single-member constituencies:

All of the African seats were contested. In Central Province seven candidates ran, including Aleke Banda, a former Secretary-General of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), James Ralph Nthinda Chinyama, a former President-General of the NAC and Herbert Gondwe, who had been a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) since 1953. The Northern Province seat was contested by four candidates, including Kaunda, the Vice President General of the NAC, and Alexander Muwamba, who had been an MLC since 1948 . The Southern Province seats were contested by six candidates, including Stevenson Kumakanga, an MLC since 1954 and Charles Matinga, leader of the Nyasaland Progressive Association. Aside from Matinga and Chief Lundu (who ran in the Southern Province), all African candidates were from the NAC.

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