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Inconclusive elections: British Guiana 1964 and Great Britain 2010

May 09, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
The current British election results poignantly make the point that with a hung Parliament, the Prime Minister remains as Prime Minister until there is resolution to the inconclusiveness. In Britain, with this hung Parliament, Prime Minister Gordon Brown remains in office until he issues his resignation; and don’t forget that Gordon Brown also is a contender for power. I should add that Britain had its first hung Parliament in 1974.
Leader of the minority Liberal and Democrat Party Nick Clegg, the new kingmaker in British politics, indicated that he would start his talks with the Party with the most votes and Parliamentary seats, the Conservative Party. Constitutional rules require that there be resolution to the inconclusive results by May 25 when Parliament hears the Queen’s Speech.
Can you imagine if the Queen or some Monarchical delegate were to pressure Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign, or fabricate some legal rule to make Gordon Brown irrelevant, and thereby enabling Clegg and Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party to form a coalition government. Picture the British outrage and British uproar that would ensue.
Nonetheless, the 1964 British Guiana (now Guyana) Election results also were inconclusive, and given that British Guiana was a British Colony then, the British Constitution was largely the overarching framework guiding and interpreting electoral rules in the Colonies and on the Mainland.
But the British colonial authorities behaved quite differently then in comparison with what is currently ensuing in Britain; the constitutional rules on the status of the Prime Minister in this current state of flux were pretty much the same then as they are now. Prime Minister Gordon Brown remains as Prime Minister until there is some resolution to this inconclusiveness.
To date, December 7, 1964 marked 45 years for the infamous 1964 Election Day in British Guiana. The U.S. and British Governments imposed this election upon the people in a bid to remove the PPP from office through a new electoral arrangement, Proportional Representation (PR). The results of this election were:
Party Votes, 1964 % Votes, 1961 % Votes, 1964
PPP 109,332 42.6 45.8
PNC 96,567 40.9 40.5
UF 26,612 16.3 12.4
GUMP 1,194 — —
JP 1,334 — —
PEP 224 — —
NLF 177 — —

The PPP secured the most votes and it was the only Party that increased its percentage share of the votes over the 1961 election. However, the Governor violated British conventions that would allow Dr. Cheddi Jagan to form the government as the leader of the Party with the majority of votes, via talks with the other party leaders. Instead, the Governor, through a constitutional amendment, called on Mr. Burnham of the People’s National Congress (PNC) to establish a government with the assistance of the UF (United Force), creating the short-lived PNC-UF Coalition. Notwithstanding some differences with the two situations, the principles of bringing some resolution today to these inconclusive election results remain the same as they were in 1964. At this point of writing, Brown remains as Prime Minister; and I am not aware that any amendment is afoot to make Brown irrelevant, and allow the other two party leaders to form the next British Government.
The December 7, 1964 date in Guyana is strategic in that it represents the climax of international intrigue and betrayal to remove a popular government from office.
Prem Misir

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