| Election Name: | 1956 Ceylonese parliamentary election |
| Country: | Sri Lanka |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1952 Ceylonese parliamentary election |
| Previous Year: | 1952 |
| Next Election: | March 1960 Ceylonese parliamentary election |
| Next Year: | March 1960 |
| Elected Members: | 3rd Parliament of Ceylon |
| Seats For Election: | 95 seats to the House of Representatives of Ceylon 48 seats were needed for a majority |
| Election Date: | 5–10 April 1956 |
| Image1: | Official Photographic Portrait of S.W.R.D.Bandaranayaka (1899-1959).jpg |
| Leader1: | S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike |
| Leader Since1: | 1956 |
| Party1: | MEP |
| Leaders Seat1: | Attanagalla |
| Last Election1: | 15.52%, 9 seats |
| Seats1: | 51 |
| Seat Change1: | 42 |
| Popular Vote1: | 1,046,277 |
| Percentage1: | 39.52% |
| Swing1: | 24.00pp |
| Leader2: | N. M. Perera |
| Leader Since2: | 1945 |
| Party2: | Lanka Sama Samaja Party |
| Leaders Seat2: | Ruwanwella |
| Last Election2: | 13.11%, 9 seats |
| Seats2: | 14 |
| Seat Change2: | 5 |
| Popular Vote2: | 274,204 |
| Percentage2: | 10.36% |
| Swing2: | 2.75pp |
| Image5: | John Kotelawala (1951).jpg |
| Leader5: | John Kotelawala |
| Leader Since5: | 1953 |
| Party5: | United National Party |
| Leaders Seat5: | Dodangaslanda |
| Last Election5: | 44.08%, 54 seats |
| Seats5: | 8 |
| Seat Change5: | 46 |
| Popular Vote5: | 738,810 |
| Percentage5: | 27.91% |
| Swing5: | 16.17pp |
| Image4: | 3x4.svg |
| Leader4: | S. J. V. Chelvanayakam |
| Leader Since4: | 1949 |
| Party4: | ITAK |
| Leaders Seat4: | Kankesanthurai |
| Last Election4: | 1.95%, 2 seats |
| Seats4: | 10 |
| Seat Change4: | 8 |
| Popular Vote4: | 142,758 |
| Percentage4: | 5.39% |
| Swing4: | 3.44pp |
| Prime Minister | |
| Posttitle: | Prime Minister after election |
| Before Election: | John Kotelawala |
| After Election: | S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike |
| Before Party: | United National Party |
| After Party: | MEP |
Parliamentary elections were held in Ceylon in 1956. They were a watershed in the country's political history, and were the first elections fought to realistically challenge the ruling United National Party. Former Leader of the House S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike crossed over to the opposition to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to launch his bid for Prime Minister. The party won the election with 51 seats, winning a majority in the house.
The UNP government of John Kotelawala had been rapidly losing steam. It faced widespread criticism over Ceylon's poor economic performance. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party now championed a popular socialist platform, calling for English to be replaced by Sinhala as the island's official language.
The UNP resisted this out of deference to Ceylon's Tamil minority, but changed its position in early 1956. This only served to cost the UNP its Tamil support while gaining it little among the Sinhalese.
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party campaigned for parity of status between Sinhala and Tamil, with both to jointly replace English as the official language.
The Tamil parties campaigned to keep English as the official language.
SLFP leader S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike assembled a coalition with a group of small Marxist parties to form the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna.
Bandaranaike's coalition obtained a solid majority government and he became prime minister.
The SLFP campaign of 1956 was the first in Ceylon's history where communal feelings against the minority Tamil community were deliberately stirred up by Sinhalese politicians for electoral gain. The SLFP tried to blame the high unemployment Sinhalese youth faced on the Tamils and in effect promised not to correct injustices but to openly discriminate against Tamils via a policy of official unilingualism.
The hard feelings from this campaign contributed towards the eruption, nearly three decades later, of the path to civil war.
However, it also changed the character of politics in the country from the elitism that had characterised it hitherto. Members of Parliament from other parties than the Left were middle class, working class or farmers. Henceforth electorates were addressed in their mother tongue at election meetings (as the LSSP and CP had done from inception) instead of English.