United People's Party (Liberia)

The United People's Party (UPP) 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 ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

. It formed in the 1980s as a successor to the

Progressive Alliance of Liberia The Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL) was an opposition political movement formed in 1975 in Liberia led by group of Liberians from the United States and local students. The Political Education Team of the organization was organized, prepared, ...

(PAL) and the Progressive People's Party (PPP), but was initially banned under President

Samuel Doe Samuel Kanyon Doe (6 May 1951 – 9 September 1990) was a Liberian politician who served as the 21st president of Liberia from 1980 to 1990. Doe ruled Liberia as Chairman of the People's Redemption Council (PRC) from 1980 to 1984 and then a ...

because of its "socialist leanings". PAL and UPP leader

Gabriel Baccus Matthews Gabriel Bacchus Matthews (1948 – September 7, 2007) was a Liberian politician. He is considered one of the leaders in developing a multi-party system in Liberia, long dominated by the True Whig Party. He founded the Progressive Alliance of ...

was the main opposition politician in Liberia under Doe, and after Doe's death in 1990 he became Foreign Minister until 1993. In the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

held on 19 July 1997, the UPP presidential candidate Gabriel Baccus Matthews won 2.51% of the vote. The party won 2 out of 64 seats in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

and none in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. While international observers deemed the polls administratively free and transparent, they noted that it had taken place in an atmosphere of intimidation because most voters believed that former rebel leader and

National Patriotic Party The National Patriotic Party (NPP) is a political party in Liberia. It was formed in 1997 by members of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia following the end of the First Liberian Civil War. History The party contested the 1997 general el ...

(NPP) candidate Charles Taylor would return to

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

if defeated. Matthews retired as leader of the party in 1999. Former senior PPP and UPP member

Sekou Conneh Sekou Damate Conneh, Jr. (born 1960) is a Liberian politician and former rebel leader. Biography Born in 1960 in the town of Gbarnga, Liberia ( Bong County) to an ethnic Mandingo Muslim family, Conneh attended St. Martin's Cathedral School f ...

became leader of the

Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) was a rebel group in Liberia that was active from 1999 until the resignation of Charles Taylor ended the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. While the group formally dissolved after the ...

(LURD) rebel group in 1999, which also included some former Doe supporters, and fought a civil war against Taylor until 2003. Conneh then ran as the 2005 presidential candidate of the Progressive Democratic Party (PRODEM). In the 11 October 2005

, the United People's Party and the

Liberian People's Party The Liberian People's Party (LPP) is a political party in Liberia. LPP formed in 1983 as the electoral wing of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA), a leftist pan-African group. Party member Amos Sawyer served as President of the Interi ...

participated as part of the Alliance for Peace and Democracy (APD). Both parties campaigned as part of the National Democratic Coalition in the 2011 presidential and legislative elections. Political parties in Liberia Socialist parties in Africa {{Liberia-party-stub