[11] However, Jagan's radical social reforms led to the British authorities sending in troops shortly after the elections, claiming there was the threat of a Marxist revolution.

The PPP won the 1961 elections by a 1.6% margin, but received almost double the number of seats compared to the PNC, leading to serious inter-racial violence.

[13] Convinced that Jagan was probably a Communist, the Kennedy administration used the Central Intelligence Agency and forced a reluctant United Kingdom to aid a campaign by conservatives and Burnham loyalists to evict the PPP government.

Following independence and an outright PNC victory in the 1968 elections, the political scene became increasingly polarized by ethnicity, and in early 1970 the Burnham government declared a republic organized on socialist, non-aligned principles.

Jagan resigned as president in 1999 due to ill health and was succeeded by Bharrat Jagdeo, who led the PPP/C to victory in the 2001 elections.

Although the opposition APNU and AFC had won a majority of seats (33), the PPP/C was able to retain power as the election rules meant that the leader of the largest single party became president.

As a result, the AFC and APNU ran a combined list for the 2015 elections, which won 33 seats, allowing PNCR leader David A. Granger to become president.

Granger refused to accept the results, but eventually five months later, Irfaan Ali of the People's Progressive Party/Civic was sworn in as the new president because of allegations of fraud and irregularities.