The Justice Party was an
Indo-Guyanese
Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are people of Indian origin who are Guyanese nationals tracing their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginnin ...
political party in
British Guiana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...
.
History
The party was set up in 1964 with assistance from the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
, and was led by Jai Narine Singh and
Balram Singh Rai
Balram Singh Rai (8 February 1921 – January 2022) was a Guyanese politician. He served as Minister of Community Development and Education from 1959 to 1961, then the first Minister of Home Affairs from 1961 to 1962.
Education and early career ...
.
[Stephen G Rabe (2006) ''U.S. Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story'', Univ of North Carolina Press, p130] The American government hoped the new party, together with the
Guiana United Muslim Party (which the British government was funding), would take votes from the
People's Progressive Party (PPP), whose left-wing leanings they were concerned about. Although the CIA estimated that the Justice Party and GUMP could win three seats in the
1964 general elections,
[ neither did; the Justice Party received only 0.6% of the vote and failed to win a seat,][ Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', pp366-368 ] whilst the PPP emerged as the largest party, but was unable to form a government.
The party did not contest any further elections.[Nohlen, p365]
References
Defunct political parties in Guyana
Indian diaspora in Guyana
1964 establishments in British Guiana
Political parties established in 1964
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