General elections were held in British Guiana on 21 August 1961. Dieter Nohlen (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p355 The result was a victory for the People's Progressive Party, which won 20 of the 35 seats.

Electoral system

The elections were the first to be held under the 1961 constitution, which had created a bicameral

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 ...

with an appointed Senate and an elected Legislative Assembly. The 36 members of the Legislative Assembly included 35 members elected in single-member constituencies and the Speaker, who was elected by the other members.Historical information events and dates on the Parliament of Guyana from 1718 to 2006
Parliament of Guyana The 13 members of the Senate included 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 ...

Campaign

A total of 98 candidates contested the elections. The PPP ran 29 candidates, the People's National Congress 35 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 ...

34.

Results

Following the elections, the People's National Congress (PNC) were allocated two of the Senate seats reserved for the opposition, with one given to

. 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 for its ceremonial opening on 6 October, requiring the police to remove them.Brewing anti-PPP challenges in 1961
Guyana.org

Aftermath

Although the PPP had only received 1.6% more of the vote than the new People's National Congress, it had won almost double the number of seats. This resulted in mass demonstrations led by the PNC, a general strike and severe inter-racial violence. After a few weeks 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

declared a state of emergency. Following these events, the country's electoral system was changed to use

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 first elections held under the new system took place in 1964.

References

{{Guyanese elections British Guiana Elections in Guyana General election British Guiana British Guiana