The Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the

Legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

in British Guiana between 1961 and 1964.

History

A new constitution was promulgated on 18 July 1961, replacing the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

Legislative Council with the Legislature. The new body consisted of a 13-member Senate and a 36-member Legislative Assembly.Historical information events and dates on the Parliament of Guyana from 1718 to 2006
Parliament of Guyana Whilst the 13 members of the Senate were nominated, the Legislative Assembly was elected, and consisted of 35 members elected in single-member constituencies, and a Speaker elected by the elected MPs.

Elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

to the new Legislature were held on 21 August 1961. The People's Progressive Party (PPP) won 20 seats, the People's National Congress (PNC) won 11 and

the United Force The United Force is a conservative and economically liberal political party in Guyana. It currently has no representation in the National Assembly and is led by Marissa Nadir. History Established on 5 October 1960 by Peter D'Aguiar, and was i ...

four. Both houses convened for the first time on 5 October 1961, when members elected Rahman Baccus Gajraj as Speaker. Although the PPP had only received 1.6% more of the vote than the PNC, it won almost double the number of seats. This resulted in mass demonstrations led by the PNC, a general strike and severe inter-racial violence. A few weeks after the elections the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

authorities intervened by sending in troops and the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

declared a state of emergency. Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p355 Further constitutional amendments in 1964 scrapped the Legislature, replacing it with a unicameral

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible gove ...

elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. The Legislature was dissolved on 25 September 1964.

List of members

References

{{reflist British Guiana Defunct lower houses 1961 establishments in British Guiana 1964 disestablishments in British Guiana