The Senate was the

upper house An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...

of the

Legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

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 ...

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 The 13 members of the Senate were nominated, with eight nominated by the ruling party, three by the opposition and two by 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 ...

. Of the 36 Legislative Assembly members, 35 were elected in single-member constituencies, and the elected MPs then elected a Speaker.

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

to the new Legislature were held on 21 August 1961, and both houses convened for the first time on 5 October 1961. In the Senate,

Ashton Chase Ashton may refer to: Names *Ashton (given name) *Ashton (surname) Places Australia * Ashton, Elizabeth Bay, a heritage-listed house in Sydney, New South Wales *Ashton, South Australia Canada *Ashton, Ontario New Zealand *Ashton, New Zealand S ...

was elected President and Cyril Victor Too Chung Vice President. The People's National Congress (PNC) were allocated two of the Senate seats reserved for the opposition, with one given to

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 ini ...

. However, the PNC claimed they should have been given all three seats, and its members attempted to block Governor

Richard Luyt Sir Richard Edmonds Luyt (8 November 1915 – 12 February 1994) was the colonial Governor of British Guiana in 1964–66. He installed Forbes Burnham of the People's National Congress (PNC) as premier of a coalition government with a small bu ...

from entering the Legislature on the day of its ceremonial opening on 6 October, requiring the police to remove them.Brewing anti-PPP challenges in 1961
Guyana.org 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 A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony adm ...

. The Legislature was dissolved on 25 September 1964.

References

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