The People's Democratic Party was a political party in
Sudan. It was formed in 1956 following a split in the
National Unionist Party (NUP). Those who left the NUP to form the PDP were largely members of the
Khatmiyya
The Khatmiyya is a Sufi order or tariqa founded by Sayyid Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim.
The Khatmiyya is the largest Sufi order in Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. It also has followers in Egypt, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Uganda, Ye ...
Sufi order. After a period of siding with the
Umma party, the PDP would later realign with the NUP, and the two parties merged in 1968 to form the
Democratic Unionist Party.
Background
The National Unionist Party had been founded in 1953 from supporters of
Ismail al-Azhari, and members of the
Khatmiyya
The Khatmiyya is a Sufi order or tariqa founded by Sayyid Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim.
The Khatmiyya is the largest Sufi order in Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. It also has followers in Egypt, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Uganda, Ye ...
Sufi order. These two factions sat uneasily with each other, and had been brought together as much for tactical reasons as for ideological cohesion. The initial Azhari-Khatmiyya alliance had come about because the Azhari led urban nationalists lacked a wide enough base to achieve electoral success alone, and had found greater cause with the Khatmiyya than with the
Mahdiyya, who would form the Umma party.
Split from the NUP
Despite their union however, the Azhari faction and the Khatmiyya faction lacked ideological cohesion, and this internal divide would form the basis of the split, which saw 21 members of the ruling NUP leaving to form the People's Democratic Party in June 1956.
References
{{Sudanese political parties
Defunct political parties in Sudan
Islamic political parties in Sudan
Political parties established in 1956
Sudanese nationalism