The Democratic Union of the Malian People (french: Union Démocratique du Peuple Malien, UDPM) was a military-backed political party in Mali. Its main organ was the daily newspaper ''

L'Essor ''L'Essor'' (fr. ''Progress'') is the state-owned national daily newspaper published in Bamako, Mali. Its motto is "''La Voix du Peuple''" ("The Voice of the People"). History ''L'Essor'' was first published in 1949, and from 1953 was the officia ...

– La Voix du Peuple'', which had a circulation of 40,000. It was the largest newspaper in the country during the mid-1980s.''Hela Världen i Fakta '86''.

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

: Bonnier Fakta Bokförlag, 1985. p. 163

History

The party was founded by the CMLN military junta in order to provide the regime with political legitimacy. Moussa Traoré announced the party's formation on 22 September 1975, with himself as

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

.Imperato, Pascal James. ''Mali: A Search for Direction''. Boulder: Westview Press, 1989. Upon the restoration of civilian rule in 1979, it became the only legal party in Mali. The UDPM organized itself along the Marxist–Leninist principle of

democratic centralism Democratic centralism is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the political party. It is mainly associated with Leninism, wherein the party's political vanguard of professional revo ...

. However, as with many other

African socialist African socialism or Afrosocialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. Many African politicians of the 1950s and 1960s professed their support for African socialism, althou ...

parties, it did not identify itself as

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

due to the perceived association between Marxism and atheism; the Malian political elite was mostly Muslim, and Muslim religious leaders played a key role in the independence movement. UDPM had a Central Executive Bureau with 19 members and a National Council with 137 members. As the party's general secretary, Traoré was the only candidate for president of the republic. He was automatically elected for a six-year term and confirmed in office in the 1979 general elections, whilst voters were presented with a single list of UDPM candidates for the National Assembly. This was repeated in elections in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

. Following a coup by Amadou Toumani Touré in 1991, the party was dissolved in the same year.

Electoral history

Presidential Elections

National Assembly elections

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Mali Political parties established in 1975 Political parties disestablished in 1991 Parties of one-party systems Socialism in Mali Banned socialist parties