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1953 British Guiana general election
24 of the 28 seats in the House of Assembly; 15 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	74.77%
Chief Minister before election; None;	Elected Chief Minister ; Cheddi Jagan; PPP

General elections were held in British Guiana on 27 April 1953.^[1] They were the first held under universal suffrage and resulted in a victory for the People's Progressive Party (PPP), which won 18 of the 24 seats in the new House of Assembly. Its leader, Cheddi Jagan, became prime minister.^[1]

Electoral system

Constitutional reforms as a result of the Waddington Commission had led to the creation of the House of Assembly to replace the Legislative Council. The new House had 28 members; 24 members elected in single member constituencies, a speaker appointed by the Governor and three ex officio members (the Chief Secretary, the Attorney General and the Financial Secretary).^[2]

Campaign

The PPP ran candidates in 22 of the 24 constituencies, failing to contest the two interior constituencies due to a lack of money. The National Democratic Party contested 15 constituencies and the People's National Party eight.^[3] A total of 85 independents,^[4] including four United Guiana Party candidates, also contested the elections.^[3] The United Workers and Farmers Party did run as a party, but contested some seats as independents.^[3]

Results


Party		Votes	%	Seats
	People's Progressive Party	77,695	51.04	18
	National Democratic Party	20,032	13.16	2
	People's National Party	3,000	1.97	0
	Independents	51,504	33.83	4
Total		152,231	100.00	24

Valid votes		152,231	97.44
Invalid/blank votes		3,995	2.56
Total votes		156,226	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		208,939	74.77
Source: GECOM

Elected members

Constituency	Member	Party	Notes
1 – North West	William Alfred Phang	Independent
2 – Pomeroon	Thomas Sherwood Wheating	Independent
3 – Western Essequibo	Janet Jagan	People's Progressive Party	Deputy Speaker
4 – Essequibo Islands	Theophilus Lee	Independent
5 – Bartica and Interior	Eugene Francis Correia	National Democratic Party
6 – Demerara-Essequibo	Fred Bowman	People's Progressive Party
7 – West Bank Demerara	Jai Narine Singh	People's Progressive Party	Minister of Local Government and Social Welfare
8 – East Bank Demerara	Joseph Prayag Lachhmansingh	People's Progressive Party	Minister of Health and Housing
9 – Upper Demerara River	Charles Albert Carter	Independent
10 – Georgetown South	Ashton Chase	People's Progressive Party	Minister of Labour, Industry and Commerce
11 – Georgetown South Central	Clinton Reginald Wong	People's Progressive Party
12 – Georgetown Central	Jessie Burnham	People's Progressive Party
13 – Georgetown North	Frank Obermuller van Sertima	People's Progressive Party
14 – Georgetown North-East	Forbes Burnham	People's Progressive Party	Minister of Education
15 – West Central Demerara	Ram Karran	People's Progressive Party
16 – Central Demerara	Sydney Evanson King	People's Progressive Party	Minister of Communications and Works
17 – East Central Demerara	Jane Phillips-Gay	People's Progressive Party
18 – Mahaica-Mahaicony	Chandra Sama Persaud	People's Progressive Party
19 – Western Berbice	Samuel Mahabali Latchmansingh	People's Progressive Party
20 – New Amsterdam	Rudy Kendall	National Democratic Party
21 – Berbice River	Ajodha Singh	People's Progressive Party
22 – Eastern Berbice	Robert Stanley Hanoman Singh	People's Progressive Party
23 – Corentyne Coast	Cheddi Jagan	People's Progressive Party	Leader of the House and Minister of Agriculture, Forests, Lands and Mines
24 – Corentyne River	Mohamed Khan	People's Progressive Party

Aftermath

After assuming power Jagan embarked on implementing a series of policies that involved radical social reform, mainly directed at the colonial oligarchy. The British colonial authorities sent in troops in response to the alleged threat of a Marxist revolution. Governor Alfred Savage suspended the constitution in October (only 133 days after it had come into force) and set up a transitional government of conservative politicians, businessmen and civil servants.^[1] Writing in The Guardian in 2020, Gaiutra Bahadur said that "the overthrow of Guyana’s ruling party by colonial forces fomented a racial divide that continues to blight its politics", saying that there was a greater crackdown on the Afro-Guyanese than on the Indo-Guyanese, in a deliberate and successful attempt to divide the PPP.^[5]