United Democratic Party (Gambia)

The United Democratic Party is a political party in the Gambia, founded in 1996 by the human rights lawyer Ousainou Darboe. 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 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 took office, Darboe was released from prison.