Ceylon: Actively Awaiting an Election

Abstract

As 1969 drew to a close, Government of United National Party (UNP) was brought to within three months of end of its maximum five year term of office. No previous Government, either since independence or beginning of closely fought party competition in 1956, had been both able and desirous of waiting so long before calling a Parliamentary general election to account for its stewardship of office. Its ability to wait rested on a parliamentary majority which became stronger in 1969, provided Federal Party's assumption of an independent status entailed no threat to vote against its former associates in UNP-led coalition. The Government's desire to wait reflected hope, probably increasingly mixed with confidence, that electorate would perceive and appreciate that Government had successfully presided over a restoration of prolonged order in Sinhalese-Tamil relations and an economic renaissance whose combined benefits seemed more apparent and secure with each passing month. While continuing to nurture such a response to their policies and performance of past four years, UNP leaders intensified their concern with party and factional alliances and understandings-both their own and those of their opponents which have been critical for outcome of each general election since 1956. The dominant Parliamentary opposition to Government, a coalition of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and two relatively small Marxist parties-the Lanka Sama Samaja (LSSP) and Ceylon Communist party, also neared a fifth anniversary, thus setting a longevity record for party coalitions in Ceylonese politics. The three parties had allied in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent UNP from returning to power in election of 1965, nine years after its unbroken post-independence rule had been terminated by first SLFP-led coalition. In confronting four year record of Government, opposition coalition (usually referred to as the Coalition) denied that either communal relations or economic welfare had been significantly improved. It continued to warn of ominous consequences-for Sinhalese, Muslims and nation-of UNP's political indebtedness to Tamil parties, especially Federal Party. It depicted Government's economic policies as benefitting rich while impoverishing masses and as both sacrificing nation's independence and mortgaging its future in quest and