United Democratic Party (The Gambia)

The United Democratic Party (abbr. UDP) is a political party in the Gambia, founded in 1996 by 3 political parties banned by the government of Yahya Jammeh (the PPP, NCP and GPP) led by human rights lawyer and freedom fighter Ousainou Darboe.^[2] It is the largest opposition party in the National Assembly since 2022.

United Democratic Party
Abbreviation	UDP
Leader	Ousainou Darboe
Founded	1996
Merger of	People's Progressive Party National Convention Party Gambian People's Party
Ideology	Social liberalism Constitutionalism Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left[1]
International affiliation	Socialist International (consultative)
National Assembly	15 / 58
Website
udp.gm
Politics of the Gambia Political parties Elections

A prominent opposition party to the ruling government of Yahyah Jammeh and the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction party, the UDP ran Darboe as its candidate in every presidential election from 1996 to 2011, with Darboe coming second to Jammeh each time. After Darboe was jailed by the government in April 2016,^[3], the UDP selected former UDP deputy treasurer Adama Barrow as its new leader and candidate for the 2016 presidential election. The UDP established Coalition 2016, a coalition of seven opposition parties, and the coalition endorsed Barrow as its candidate. Barrow officially resigned from the UDP to run as an independent candidate endorsed by the coalition. Barrow then won the election in an upset victory. When Jammeh refused to accept the election result, he was forcibly removed from office by a regional military intervention, and after Barrow's inauguration, Darboe was released from prison.

In the lead-up to the 2021 presidential election, Coalition 2016 collapsed, and the party once again ran Darboe as their candidate,^[4] who lost the election and received 27.7% of the vote.^[5] In the 2022 National Assembly election, the party won 15 of the 53 available seats.^[6]

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[a]	227,708	43.29%	Won Y
2021	Ousainou Darboe	238,253	27.72%	Lost N

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		142,146	37.47	31 / 53	31	1st	Coalition (UDP-NRP-PPP)
2022		138,176	28.04	15 / 53	16	2nd	Opposition