United Democratic Party (The Gambia)

(Redirected from United Democratic Party (Gambia)) Political party in the Gambia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "United Democratic Party" The Gambia – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

United Democratic Party

Abbreviation	UDP
Leader	Ousainou Darboe
Founded	1996
Ideology	Social liberalism Constitutionalism Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left
International affiliation	Socialist International (consultative)
National Assembly	15 / 58
Website
udp.gm
Politics of Gambia Political parties Elections

The United Democratic Party (abbr. UDP) is a political party in the Gambia, founded in 1996 by 3 political parties (the then-banned PPP, NCP and GPP) and choose the human rights lawyer, freedom fighter, ANM Ousainou Darboe to be the party leader and Secretary General. As a candidate in the presidential election of 18 October 2001, he came second with 32.6% of the popular vote; he took second place again in the 22 September 2006 presidential election with 26.7% of the vote. The 17 January 2002 parliamentary election was boycotted by the party. In the 25 January 2007 parliamentary election, the party won four out of 48 seats.

After Darboe was jailed in April 2016 for his political activities in opposition to the ruling government of Yahyah Jammeh and his Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction party, the previous UDP deputy treasurer Adama Barrow was selected as its leader and candidate for the 2016 presidential election. The UDP then became part of the opposition alliance known as Coalition 2016, a group of seven political parties, and the Coalition endorsed Barrow as its candidate. Barrow officially resigned from the party to allow him to run as a formally independent candidate endorsed by the Coalition. Barrow then won the election in a surprise victory. When Jammeh refused to accept the election result, he was forced from office by a regional military intervention, and when Barrow won the election, Darboe was released from prison.

In the 2021 election, the party once again backed Ousainou Darboe who lost the election and received 27.7% of the vote.

In the 2022 National Assembly election, the party won 15 of the 53 available seats.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Party candidate	Votes	%	Result
1996	Ousainou Darboe	141,387	35.84%	Lost N
2001		149,448	32.59%	Lost N
2006		104,808	26.69%	Lost N
2011		114,177	17.36%	Lost N
2016	Adama Barrow	227,708	43.29%	Won Y
2021	Ousainou Darboe	238,253	27.72%	Lost N

Supported Adama Barrow as independent candidate for Coalition 2016.

National Assembly elections

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Government
1997	Ousainou Darboe	104,568	33.97%	7 / 45	7	2nd	Opposition
2002		Election boycotted		0 / 49	7		Extra-parliamentary
2007		57,545	21.84%	4 / 49	4	2nd	Opposition
2012		Election boycotted		0 / 48	4		Extra-parliamentary
2017	Adama Barrow	142,146	37.47	31 / 53	31	1st	Coalition (UDP-NRP-PPP)
2022	Ousainou Darboe	138,176	28.04	15 / 53	16	2nd	Opposition

References

"Our Philosophy". www.udp.gm. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
Elections in the Gambia, African Elections Database.
"Gambia opposition leader jailed". BBC News. 21 July 2016.
"Election FAQs: The Gambia" (PDF). ifes.org. 4 December 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
"Barrow re-elected The Gambia's president, opposition cries foul". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
"IEC announces final Legislative Election results - The Point". thepoint.gm. Retrieved 14 April 2022.

Political parties in the Gambia

National Assembly

Other parties

Political alliances	Coalition 2016 National Alliance for Democracy and Development

Defunct parties

This article about a political party in The Gambia is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: