By 1960, Ceylon's governing
Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) coalition was falling apart. The
Marxist parties that were junior partners of the coalition had broken with the dominant
Sri Lanka Freedom Party over the issue of paddy lands. The Marxist
Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party formed a new party that took the name MEP. The SLFP itself had been torn by an internal power struggle since the death of its leader,
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the previous year. Both the
United National Party and the SLFP campaigned on a strongly anti-
Tamil line, promising to repatriate the
estate Tamils to India, and implement the
Sinhala Only Act. ==Results==