ON July 16, 2013, we will be commemorating the 40th death anniversary of two exemplary young comrades, Bholanauth  Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar, who were ruthlessly and brutally gunned down after demanding that the ballots be counted at the place poll during the 1973 elections.

QUOTE: ‘ During the campaign before July 16, 1973, it was clear that the PPP meetings attracted massive support, while the PNC had only a sprinkling of people. Motie, as he sobbed, told me that when the election results were announced, and the PNC was declared the winning party, nobody accepted the results’

These young men and their fellow villagers were among the thousands of Guyanese who were steadfast in their call for free and fair elections in Guyana at that time.
On that fatal day — July 16, 1973 — forty years ago, Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar were shot and killed by a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer.
Guyanese were fully aware of the People’s National Congress (PNC)’ wicked and devious approach to national elections, specifically their heinous intentions to rig the investigations into the elections by the Justice Dhanessar Jhappan Commission of Inquiry, which revealed the high likelihood of a PPP victory if the elections were run in a free and fair manner.
The Commission cited the massive public meetings held by the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), and the overwhelming public display of support for Dr. Cheddi Jagan as evidence of this.
The PNC, in order to ensure their victory by any means necessary, deployed the security forces, both the Army and Police, to all parts of the country. In addition to the regular strength at the police stations in Berbice, a battalion was deployed from the GDF, under Captain Johnson.
Captain Johnson had his headquarters in the compound of the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam. The men under his command were further broken up into smaller groups, and a platoon under the command of Lieutenant Henry was sent to the Upper Corentyne on June 7, 1973.
That portion consisted of two Sergeants, three Corporals, five Lance Corporals and nine Privates, twenty men in all, including Lieutenant Henry. The platoon pitched camp at No. 51 Backdam, and remained there until June 19, 1973. From there, they went to Plantation Skeldon, remaining there until June 27, 1973, when they moved on to No. 63 Village and bivouacked on the beach.
On the June 14, 1973, they left No. 63 Beach and set up camp in the compound of the No. 51 Police Station. They had with them self-loading rifles, submachine guns, tear smoke grenades and steel helmets.
I worked on that day in Pouderoyen, and as we were coming out at about 5:30am, I recall seeing GDF soldiers crawling on the roadside with their weapons. A physical manifestation of the PNC’s heinous intention to terrorize the population was unleashed
in the form of thugs, police and the army.
It is not by chance that Private London of the GDF was later known to Guyanese as the famous criminal, ‘Blackie’. He was one of the masterminds among the criminal gangs that terrorized the Guyanese people. ‘Blackie’ was killed in a shootout with the police at Eccles some years ago, and the PNC draped his coffin with the national f lag, and gave him a PNC farewell funeral at the Square of the Revolution.
On July 16, 1973, an Army Patrol Unit with Corporal Collins, Privates McKenzie, Layne
and London (Blackie) of the GDF; Sergeant Ross, along with Police Constable Seecharran of the
Guyana Police Force, under the command of Lieutenant Henry, converged on polling stations.
Henry took along with him tear smoke grenades, respirators, steel helmets, two submachine guns, rifles and bayonets. He himself was armed with one of the submachine guns. Corporal Collins had the other.
The PNC thugs, with all their armed might, descended on the Corentyne with the clear intention to take full control of the ballot boxes, and remove the representatives of the other three political parties from around those boxes.
Bholanauth Parmanand was killed, and his wife and four children were left alone to endure the painful loss of the sole breadwinner of the family when their loving husband and father was ripped from them in the most brutal manner.
Young Jagan Ramessar was shot and seriously wounded, and the army officers threw him in their vehicle and drove around the place as they stomped and kicked in the process. He was purposely displayed in this manner to send a strong message to the people of Berbice.
Approximately five hours later, after his corpse was indescribably desecrated, he was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Jagan Ramessar, only eighteen years old, was murdered in the most brutal manner possible,  and today, the memory of that act still has his parents and other relatives in tears.
Today, 40 years later, Parmanand’s immediate family and his friends still vividly recall the unbelievably brutal and subversive debacle that was the 1973 elections.
My friend, Rishi Ram Motie, and his friends tearfully recounted for me what they witnessed on that day. Motie suffered a broken nose. His body was black-and-blue after he was relentlessly cuffed and kicked. Scores of persons were badly beaten and threatened. Families were humiliated and separated.
During the campaign before July 16, 1973, it was clear that the PPP meetings attracted massive support, while the PNC had only a sprinkling of people. Motie, as he sobbed, told me that when the election results were announced, and the PNC was declared the winning party, nobody accepted the results.
The PNC terrorists continued to terrorize the Berbicians, and hundreds of people had to flee their homes and move to Suriname, while others went into hiding for weeks and months.
Thousands of Guyanese, including Berbicians, were forced to leave Guyana and migrate
to other countries during those times, due to the dictatorship antics of the PNC regime. They had no other alternative to physically survive.
Today, as we honour the heroic efforts of these two men, Mr. Motie said he is disappointed and worried to see some people who were on our side only recently, are today
sitting in Parliament on the opposite side, arm-in-arm with the very people who were responsible for the deaths of the ‘Ballot Box Martyrs’, as they have come to be known, and the devastation of the Guyanese nation for 28 long years.
Those people are fully aware of the malevolent and inhumane acts of the PNC towards
the Guyanese people. Guyanese must never forget that many eminent persons, such as Dr.
Walter Rodney, were assassinated during the dark days of the PNC rule.
Today, we must draw strength, unite and work together for the maintenance and further development of the democracy we now enjoy.
We must ensure that the memories of Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar live on, and let their sacrifices inspire us to rally with Dr Cheddi Jagan’s People’s Progressive Party.