The Senate was the

upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

of the

Legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

between 1961 and 1964.

History

A new constitution was promulgated on 18 July 1961, replacing the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

with the legislature. The new body consisted of a 13-member Senate and a 36-member Legislative Assembly.Historical information events and dates on the Parliament of Guyana from 1718 to 2006
Parliament of Guyana The 13 members of the Senate were nominated, with eight nominated by the ruling party, three by the opposition and two by the

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

. Of the 36 Legislative Assembly members, 35 were elected in single-member constituencies, and the elected MPs then elected a Speaker.

Elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

to the new Legislature were held on 21 August 1961, and both houses convened for the first time on 5 October 1961. In the Senate, Ashton Chase was elected President and Cyril Victor Too Chung Vice President. The People's National Congress (PNC) were allocated two of the Senate seats reserved for the opposition, with one given to the United Force. However, the PNC claimed they should have been given all three seats, and its members attempted to block Governor Richard Luyt from entering the legislature on the day of its ceremonial opening on 6 October, requiring the police to remove them.Brewing anti-PPP challenges in 1961
Guyana.org Further constitutional amendments in 1964 scrapped the legislature, replacing it with a unicameral

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

. The legislature was dissolved on 25 September 1964.

References

{{National upper houses 1961 establishments in British Guiana 1964 disestablishments in British Guiana British Guiana Defunct upper houses