History this week – No 37/2009
By Cecilia McAlmont
Introduction
On January 3, 1969 the National Assembly of the Second Parliament of Guyana had its first meeting. This Second Parliament resulted from the December 16, 1968 General Elections for 53 seats in the National Assembly. Nearly three years before, at independence, on May 26, 1966, the House of Assembly became the National Assembly of the First Parliament. Both the 1968 general elections and the Second Parliament were significant events in several respects. The focus of this article will be the conduct of the elections and the composition and activities of the Second Parliament which resulted from it including the role of women in both activities.
The 1968 General Elections
The December 16, 1968 general elections were the first after independence in May 1966 and the last to be conducted before Guyana acceded to gained Republican status on February 23, 1970. The second election under the system of Proportional Representation it was also the first election, where through postal voting, the Guyanese “diaspora” was permitted to participate in electing the country’s decision makers. Four political parties- the PNC, PPP, UF and GUMP contested all 53 seats. Over 93% of the electorate exercised the franchise. 312,319 valid votes were cast. Of these 36,475 were overseas ballots, of which 34,429 or 75% were cast in favour of the PNC. Overall the PNC received 174,339 equal to 55.8% of the votes and was awarded 30 seats. The PPP received 113,991 votes equal to 36.5% and 19 seats, the UF 23, 102 votes equal to 7.4% and four seats and GUMP 899 representing a minuscule 0.3% of the 275,849 of the valid local votes cast.
The 1968 elections and its results showed several stark similarities and differences with recent elections. For example, the August 2006 elections were regarded as “free and fair” by all parties whereas in 1968, the leaders of both opposition parties declared that there had been extensive manipulation and fraud especially in the overseas/postal voting. As in recent times, in 1968 the Elections Commission was under duress. The debacle over ID cards which were supposed to be used in general elections for the first time, was one of the many problems faced by the Chief Election Officer, Richard Butler and the Chairman, Sir Donald Jackson. There were claims and counter claims of spoilt photographs to be retaken, whether or not ID cards would be available and where and when they could be obtained. Eventually, they were not available for use on the day of the election. As a result of the confusion, the UF representative on the Commission Mr. W. O. Fraser resigned citing “frustration” and “impotence” hindering his performance as a member of the commission. Additionally, the leader of the UF, Mr. Fielden Singh, complained to the Chairman about the Commission’s “inability” and “unwillingness” to deal with matters in connection with the elections. Moreover, there was an acrimonious debate in Parliament over Ordinance no. 6 of 1968 Representation of the People Act of 1968 which would permit postal voting by Guyanese resident overseas and increase the number of proxies from 2 to 3. It proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back of the unequally yoked PNC/UF coalition and led to the dissolution of that contentious four year relationship.
The National Assembly of the Second Parliament
(a)Women’s involvement
Of the 212 candidates on the list of the four parties that contested the elections only 29 or 13.6% were women. In the National Assembly members of government now included both elected and non elected members. This was the beginning of a trend which has continued to the present and has had both positive and negative consequences for aspiring women parliamentarians. Only one of the four elected ministers, Shirley Patterson was a woman. She was given a ministerial portfolio in December 1969 when she succeeded Winifred Gaskin as Minister of Education. She also became Leader of the House. It was the first of four ministerial portfolios she held during the life of the Second Parliament.
Two of the three non-elected ministers of government were women – Dr. Sylvia Talbot, Minister of Health and Ms. Cicelene Baird, Minister of Education. Ms. Margaret Ackman became Parliamentary Secretary (Junior Minister) in the Office of the Prime Minister. She was also government Chief Whip. Huldah Walcott was the other PNC parliamentarian. Philomena Sahoye-Shury and Lilian Maud Branco were the PPP parliamentarians. The latter left the PPP and was an independent in 1972. She was on the list of PNC candidates for the 1973 elections and was a PNC parliamentarian in the Third Parliament. Eleanor DaSilva was the Parliamentarian from the UF. The women parliamentarians of the PNC represented 11.5% of the other members of the government while the women of the PPP represented 10.5 of their 19 parliamentarians.
(b) Ordinance no. 26 of 1969
The passing of the above named ordinance during the Second Parliament made February 23 a public holiday. The act was the last of a series of Holiday Acts that were passed during the 20th century and February 23, 1970 was the first of three changes to the list of public holidays to be made before the change of administration in 1992. It was the culmination of a deliberate effort to make the public holiday structure of the country more appropriate. What was interesting about this particular ordinance was that it was just an amendment act. It simply called for the deletion of the words “Independence Day” and the insertion of the words “Republic Day…” Prime Minister Burnham perhaps did not see the need for consultation, because on February 23 1969 Opposition Leader, Dr. Cheddi Jagan himself had called for February 23 to be declared a national holiday.
Perhaps, what he did not anticipate was that it would replace Independence Day as the public holiday. Indeed, there was little negative public reaction to the decision that from 1970 the holiday would be Republic Day rather than Independence Day. However, there was strong reaction from the Christian community, specifically the Catholic clergy which accused Burnham of attempting to de-emphasize Christmas. This was in reaction to a speech made by Burnham in which he asked Guyanese to spend less for Christmas 1969 and keep some of their resources for Republic Day, 1970.
This was in stark contrast to the very strong reaction of the Hindu and Muslim community to the 1967 Ordinance. The holidays listed under clause 3(1) of Ordinance no. 4 of 1967 differed in one very important respect from the Act which had been in operation since 1965. It did not include the Hindu observance of Ram Naumi or the Muslim feast day of Eid-ul-Fitr. Their absence and the fact that there had been no consultation outraged both communities. In a press release, a Joint action Committee representing four Hindu and the Muslim organizations – the Maha Saba, the Gandhi Youth Organisation, the United Sad’r Islamic Anjuman, and the American Aryan League accused the government of obduracy and intransigence by its refusal to declare Ram Naumi and Eid-ul-Fitr national holidays. They further charged when it was decided to restrict the number of holidays to 12 the “Government ought to have permitted the religious leaders of the Hindu and Muslim Communities to choose which two the followers of each religion would prefer.
Forbes Burnham, as opposition leader, had in 1963 passionately made the case for the granting of Hindu and Muslim days as public holidays. He had also supported the motion that the selecting and placing of the holidays would be the subject of consultations with the various religious organizations. The article concluded:
The exclusion of Ram Naumi and Eid-ul-Fitr from the calendar of national holidays is an act of disgrace and stamps the government with the indelible mark of tyrants. It is certainly symbolic of religious intolerance and in our view even amounts to religious oppression.
(c) Crossing the floor and other matters
One of the issues that loomed very large prior to the 1968 elections and continued during the life of the Second parliament was the constant crossing of the floor by the opposition PPP and UF especially Muslim parliamentarians to the ruling PNC. These defections certainly weakened the opposition parties and certainly put the PPP in a defensive mode. This issue could be the subject of several articles.
Finally and tragically it was during this Second Parliament that Governor General, Sir David Rose was killed in a freak accident in London on November 10, 1969. He had become Governor General on December 17, 1966.