The United People's Movement, formerly known as the Rehoboth Democratic Movement, 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 political ideology ...

(self-described "unity movement") based in

Rehoboth, Namibia Rehoboth is a town in central Namibia just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Located 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of the Namibian capital Windhoek, Rehoboth lies on a high elevation plateau with several natural hot-water springs. It receives ...

. It formed in March 2010 and is headed by

Willem Bismark van Wyk Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, Gui ...

(President) and former leading

Democratic Turnhalle Alliance The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...

member

Piet Junius Petrus "Piet" Matheus Junius (1941 - 3 April 2021) was a Namibian politician who served as the Deputy Education Minister of the Interim Namibian Government from 1985 to 1989. Junius also served as vice-president of the Democratic Turnhalle Asso ...

(Vice President).New political party emerges at Rehoboth

The Namibian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, 16 March 2010 The party changed names in August 2010 to the United People's Movement.Rehoboth politics gets messier

, 18 August 2010 The party officially registered with the Electoral Commission in July 2010UPM readies for elections
New Era, 4 August 2010 and contested the November 2010 local and regional elections, where it won 2 seats in the Rehoboth local council and 1 seat on the

Okahandja Okahandja is a city of 24,100 inhabitants in Otjozondjupa Region, central Namibia, and the district capital of the Okahandja electoral constituency. It is known as the ''Garden Town of Namibia''. It is located 70 km north of Windhoek on the ...

Municipality. The UPM is currently represented on the Rehoboth Local Authority Council by its secretary-general Martin G. Dentlinger and Chairperson Jan J. van Wyk. The UPM also has a seat on the

municipality, where it is represented by Mr. Andries Bezuidenhout. The United People's Movement, despite the financial difficulties and other challenges, gained one seat in parliament in the

2014 Namibian general election General elections were held in Namibia on 28 November 2014, although early voting took place in foreign polling stations and for seagoing personnel on 14 November. The elections were the first on the African continent to use electronic voting. ...

after gaining 6,353 votes (0.71%). National chairperson

Jan van Wyk Jan Johannes van Wyk (born 17 October 1967) is a Namibian politician who has served as a Member of the National Assembly of Namibia since 2015, first as a representative for the United People's Movement (UPM) and later for the Popular Democratic ...

, who has served the party for four years in the Rehoboth Town Council, represented the UPM in Parliament. The party did not contest the subsequent elections in 2019.

References

Political parties established in 2010 2010 establishments in Namibia Rehoboth, Namibia Political parties in Namibia {{Namibia-party-stub