Also in that year, founding member Saunders Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Evans, however, lost Carmarthen to Labour, lost again by three votes in February 1974, but regained the seat in October 1974, by which time the party had gained a further two MPs, representing the constituencies of Caernarfon and Merionethshire. Alarmed at the decrease in the number of Welsh speakers, Evans began a campaign for the establishment of a Welsh-language television channel. At the 1979 General Election the party's vote share declined from 10.8% to 8.1% and Carmarthen was again lost to Labour. Plaid Cymru led the Yes Campaign in favor of devolution, though some party members were somewhat ambivalent toward home rule (as opposed to outright independence). The referendum was held on St David's Day (1 March) 1979, but the people of Wales voted against proposals to establish a Welsh Assembly. Only 12% of the Welsh electorate voted to set up a directly elected forum which would have been based in Cardiff's Coal Exchange. The Assembly would have had the powers and budget of the Secretary of State for Wales. The plans were defeated by a majority of 4:1 (956,330 against, 243,048 for). The Wales Act contained a requirement that at least 40% of all voters backed the plan. After the referendum results many in the party questioned its direction. Following the Yes Campaign's defeat, and believing Welsh nationalism was "in a paralysis of helplessness," the UK Conservative government Home Secretary announced in September 1979 that the government would not honour its pledge in the previous May's election campaign to establish a Welsh-language television channel, much to widespread anger and resentment in Wales, wrote Dr Davies. In early 1980 over two thousand members of Plaid Cymru pledged to go to prison rather than pay the television licence fees, and by that spring Evans announced his intention to fast to death if a Welsh-language channel were not established. In early September 1980, Evans addressed thousands at a gathering in which "passions ran high," according to Dr Davies. The government yielded by 17 September, and the Welsh Fourth Channel (S4C) was launched on 2 November 1982. The Wigley & Elis presidencies 1981–2000 Caernarfon MP, Dafydd Wigley succeeded Gwynfor Evans as president in 1981, inheriting a party whose morale was at an all-time low after the defeat of the Yes Campaign. In 1981 the party adopted "community