The Social Democratic Rally (french: Rassemblement social démocratique, RSD-Gaskiya) is a
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
The RSD-Gaskiya was founded by Cheiffou in January 2004 as a split from the
Democratic and Social Convention
The Democratic and Social Convention - Rahama (french: Convention démocratique et sociale-Rahama, CDS-Rahama) is a political party in Niger.
History
It was founded in January 1991. In the February 1993 parliamentary elections the party won 22 ...
(CDS), and fared well in the July 2004 municipal elections.Cherif Ouazani "Six candidats pour un fauteuil" ''Jeune Afrique'', November 7, 2004 . In the 2004 general elections Cheiffou was nominated as the RSD candidate, receiving 6.35% of the vote and placing fourth out of six candidates; the party subsequently backed incumbent President
Mamadou Tandja
Mamadou Tandja (1938 – 24 November 2020) was a Nigerien politician who was President of Niger from 1999 to 2010. He was President of the National Movement for the Development Society (MNSD) from 1991 to 1999 and unsuccessfully ran as the MNS ...
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
.
In May 2009, the party was one of a handful of parties that supported President Tandja's call for a referendum to create a new constitution that would remove term limits on the presidency. After the referendum, the party placed second in the October 2009 parliamentary election amidst an opposition boycott; receiving 16% of the vote, it won 15 seats. Cheiffou was the RSD presidential candidate again for the 2011 general elections; he finished fifth in a field of ten candidates with 4% of the vote. In the parliamentary elections the party lost all 15 seats as its vote share fell to 1.8%.
The 2016 general elections saw Cheiffou run for the presidency again, finishing eighth out of fifteen candidates with 1.8% of the vote. However, the party regained parliamentary representation, winning four seats in the National Assembly.