Dear Editor,
July 10th, 2022 marks 44 years since the rigged Constitutional Referendum of July 10th, 1978. This event set the stage for the creation of the New People’s Constitution which was imposed on the Guyanese Nation on the 6th of October 1980. The Constitutional Referendum of July 10th, 1978 changed Article 73 of the Constitution and brought an end to any further Referendums that would abolish the entrenched provisions in the constitution including the powers of the president, the dissolution of parliament, and the electoral system, and instead, allow them to be changed by a two-thirds majority which the PNC had at that time.
General Election was due to be held in 1978, no later than the 25th of October 1978. Five years earlier, the PNC massively rigged the general election of 1973 giving itself a two-thirds majority. While Guyanese unsuspectingly awaited the date for the new General Election, then leader of the PNC and Prime Minister of Guyana, Linden Forbes Burnham, postponed the date for the election. He cunningly devised a strategy he introduced on the 1st of April, a constitutional amendment bill number 8 of 1978 in parliament which amended article 73 of the Constitution. The objective of the PNC was to put off the General Election due that year. The bill was passed by the PNC majority but most people at the time were unaware of what had happened as Guyanese were living under siege, experiencing blackouts, severe water shortages, and shortages of essential items. People lined up outside Resal Maraj in Water Street for long periods of time just to get a pint of coconut oil. Soap, toilet paper, and matches were only available on the black market.
Opposition to the bill was broad-based, it included the PPP, the WPA, the Guyana Council of Churches, the People’s Democratic Movement, the Liberator party, the Rice Producer’s Association, Guyana Agricultural Workers Union, and the Civil Liberties Action Council. Soon after another anti-bill grouping was founded. The Concern Citizens Committee (CCC), included lawyers, architects, medical professionals, educators, lecturers from the University of Guyana, Trade Unions, and the Guyana Council of Churches as observers. The PNC cracked down on the opposition and in order to stem the flow of information controlled the importation of newsprint. The Catholic Standard was forced to print on a photo stenciled format on a much smaller scale. The Chronicle refused to accept paid advertisements by the opposition. A peaceful picket outside Parliament was attacked by PNC thugs and picketers were severely beaten, including National Poet Martin Carter.
The PNC government went ahead with organizing the Referendum without consulting the opposition, the CDD, and CCC. Referendum day July 10th, 1978 had shown from early morning that voters had heeded the opposition boycott call. There was a small trickle of voters, even in PNC strongholds their supporters figured the party had it all covered. The PNC frantically at the last moment could be seen recycling activists in motor vehicles and cycles. According to the CDD, the CCC, and the PPP, the massive boycott by the electorate resulted in only 14 percent of the electorate turning out to vote. The symbols were the House meant Yes and the Mouse meant No! Within two days, the votes were counted in the absence of opposition observers. The results of the Polls stated that 71.45% of the electorate voted and 97.7% supported the Referendum proposal. There was widespread condemnation and outrage by the opposition and civil society in Guyana and the Diaspora over the bare-faced and blatant rigging of the referendum which was to usher in the PNC Dictatorship.
On July 17th, 1978, the PNC government using its two-thirds parliamentary majority, amended the constitution and extended the life of parliament thus avoiding the need for General Elections. Four days later Parliament reconstituted itself into a Constitutional Assembly to draft a new Socialist Constitution for Guyana. A reconvened parliament, approved by the PNC two-thirds majority, the PNC draft which became the New People’s Constitution of Guyana. The New Constitution created an Executive President with unlimited power. The former Ceremonial President, Mr. Author Chung, stepped down making way for Burnham. The PPP boycotted the Parliamentary Session on October 6th, 1980 and deemed the Constitution fraudulent and called on Guyanese to reject the constitution which it ridiculed as the Chronicle… only fit for use as toilet paper and as the concoction of a mad dictator. The PNC on the other hand said the Constitution was necessary to ensure the transition from a Capitalist to a society founded on Socialist Democracy. The constitution offered the broad masses of Guyanese the opportunity to participate in the important decision-making processes in the economic and political life of our country. However, the all-embracing powers of the Executive President to immunity and protection from prosecution do not accord with Socialist Democracy or People’s power, rather it offered the Executive effective and total control of the population.
The PNC swiftly moved and called a General Elections on December 15th, 1980, and once again notoriously rigged the election giving itself 78 percent of the votes. The fraudulent 1980 election came after the PNC had imposed its 1980 Constitution leaving a bloody trail behind. It systemically eroded the rights of the Guyanese people. The return of free and fair elections in 1992 has not restored Democracy to Guyana. Constitutional Reform has been mere window dressing. Neither the PPP nor the PNC have any real interest in bringing about any radical changes in the Constitution that would benefit the Guyanese nation which would require a two-thirds majority. Periodic elections are thus farcical as it remains the exchange of one party by the other, and the institutionalization of a succession of dictatorships in which the ruling political elites drain the country of its wealth and put Guyana up for sale, at the disposal of the big capitalist consortiums. The Constitutional Referendum of July 10th, 1978 remains the most crucial event that has decisively changed the course of our history. It has unleashed such terror that has caused the migration of almost half of our population and has brought death and suffering to so many.
It is truly disappointing, and a betrayal by the PPP and the WPA, that had played such an important role in the mobilization of Guyanese. Guyanese from all races, classes, religious denominations, and women organizations hitherto unseen since 1953 came in the thousands in opposition to the July 10th referendum. Never did the PPP or the WPA issue a call for a COI into the processes leading up to what remains the most decisive chapter in Guyanese history. It is not too late for those militant Guyanese who participated in that struggle, most of whom are now in their senior years to educate the younger generations about what transpired in our history on that dreadful day and to yet issue a call for a COI as a way out of the continued rule by a fraudulent Constitution and authoritarianism.
Sincerely,
Desmond Alli
General Secretary
Guyana United Artists GUA)