Party, which had won a majority of the elected seats in 1926. Elections were held under the new system in 1930 and 1935, but World War II caused the next elections to be delayed until 1947, with reforms passed in 1943 reducing the number of appointed members to nine, giving the elected members a majority on the Council. A reduction in the income requirements to voters increased the electorate from 9,514 in 1935 to 59,193. As a result of the Waddington Commission, further constitutional reforms 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. Elections were held under the new system in 1953, and were convincingly won by the People's Progressive Party, which took 18 of the 24 seats. However, after assuming power, PPP leader Cheddi Jagan embarked on 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 and 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. The transitional government lasted until elections in 1957 to a reconstituted Legislative Council with 14 elected members. The PPP won all but two seats, although it had split into two factions, one led by Jagan and the other by Forbes Burnham. Another round of constitutional reform in 1961 led to the creation of the Legislature, consisting of an elected 36-member Legislative Assembly (35 members elected in single-member constituencies, who in turn elected a Speaker) and an appointed 13-member Senate. These elections were again won by the PPP, who took 20 of the 35 directly-elected seats. However, the PPP had only received 1.6% more of the vote than the new People's National Congress (PNC), but had won almost double the number of seats. This resulted in mass demonstrations led by the PNC, a general strike and severe inter-racial violence. After a few weeks the British authorities intervened by sending in troops and the Governor declared a state of emergency. Following these events, further constitutional reforms were enacted to create a unicameral 54-member House of Assembly elected by proportional representation (53