Important elements of the wider strategy that finally brought down the PPP were: internal subversion to discredit the regime; various forms of economic pressure which, contrary to PPP propaganda, at best led to economic stagnation; more electoral manipulation, this time in the form of the imposition of proportional representation which favoured the opposition forces and the resuscitation of the long concluded Guyana/Venezuela border dispute as a backstop in the event that the PPP was still able to prevail.
At the 1964 elections the PPP received 45.8% percent of the votes which translated into 24 seats in the national assembly; the PNC 40.5% of votes and 22 seats; the United Force 12.4% with 7 seats. The die was cast and differing from the tradition, the governor did not even bother to request that Cheddi Jagan,