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Sirimavo Bandaranaike is
the first ever female head of government |
1960: Ceylon elects world's first woman
PM |
England have
Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of Ceylon's assassinated prime
minister Solomon Bandaranaike, has been elected the world's first woman
prime minister.
Her Sri Lanka Freedom Party won a resounding victory in the general
election taking 75 out of 150 seats.
Mrs Bandaranaike only entered politics after her husband was shot by an
extremist Buddhist on 26 September 1959.
She has become known as the "weeping widow" for frequently bursting
into tears during the election campaign and vowing to continue her late
husband's socialist policies.
This week's election was called after Dudley Senanavake's United
National Party failed to produce a working majority after winning
elections in March.
Aristocratic by birth
Mrs Bandaranaike was born into the Ceylon aristocracy and her husband
was a landowner. She was educated by Roman Catholic nuns at St Bridget's
school in the capital, Colombo, and is a practising Buddhist.
She married in 1940 aged 24 and has three children - and until her
husband's death seemed content in her role as mother and retiring wife.
Her SLFP aims to represent the "little man" although its policies
during the campaign were not clear.
Mr Bandaranaike attributed her success to the "people's love and
respect" for her late husband and urged her supporters to practise "simple
living, decorum and dignity".
Her husband came to power in 1955, eight years after independence, and
declared himself a Buddhist which appealed to nationalists. But his
government was wracked by infighting among Sinhalese and Tamils and lacked
direction.
Mrs Bandaranaike inherits a country in a state of flux and her party's
proposed programme of nationalisation may bring her into conflict with
foreign interests in commodities like tea, rubber and
oil.