Democratic Republican Union

For the French Third Republic group, see Democratic and Republican Union.

The Democratic Republican Union (Spanish: Unión Republicana Democrática, URD) is a Venezuelan political party founded in 1945.

Democratic Republican Union Unión Republicana Democrática
Founder	Jóvito Villalba
Founded	18 December 1945
Headquarters	Caracas
Ideology	Liberalism[1] Social liberalism Civic nationalism Progressivism Reformism
Political position	Centre to centre-left[2][3][4]
Colours	Yellow
Politics of Venezuela Political parties Elections

History

When the party appeared on course to win the 1952 election for a constituent assembly, then-dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez suspended the election.^[5] The party joined in the 1958 Puntofijo Pact, and its candidate in that year's presidential election, Wolfgang Larrazábal, was the runner-up. The party resigned from the Puntofijo Pact in 1962 in protest of the decision to exclude Cuba from the Organization of American States, which ended its time as a dominant political party. Its candidate Jóvito Villalba won 19% of the vote in the 1963 election, but only 3% in the 1973 election.

Presidential candidates supported

Elections where the URD backed the winning candidate shown in bold.

• 1952 election: Jóvito Villalba
• 1958 election: Wolfgang Larrazábal (34.88% of vote)
• 1963 election: Jóvito Villalba (18.89%)
• 1968 election: Miguel Ángel Burelli Rivas (22.22%)
• 1973 election: Jóvito Villalba (3.07%)
• 1978 election: Luis Herrera Campins (COPEI candidate)
• 1983 election: Jaime Lusinchi (Acción Democrática candidate)
• 1988 election: Ismenia Villalba (0.84%)
• 1993 election: Rafael Caldera (independent, backed by a coalition of anti-COPEI/Acción Democrática parties)
• 1998 election: Luis Alfaro Ucero (0.60%)
• 2000 election:
• 2006 election: Manuel Rosales (A New Era candidate)