The Democratic Republican Union ( es, Unión Republicana Democrática, URD) is a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n political party founded in 1945.

History

When the party appeared on course to win the 1952 election for a constituent assembly, then-dictator

Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military and general officer of the Army of Venezuela and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 19 ...

suspended the election.Historia viva, 2002-2003
Jorge Olavarría. 2003. (page 134). The party joined in the 1958

Puntofijo Pact The Puntofijo Pact (or Punto Fijo Pact) was a formal arrangement arrived at between representatives of Venezuela's three main political parties in 1958, Acción Democrática (AD), COPEI (Social Christian Party), and Unión Republicana Democr� ...

, and its candidate in that year's

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

, Wolfgang Larrazábal, was the runner-up. The party resigned from the Puntofijo Pact in 1962 in protest of the decision to exclude

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

from the Organization of American States, which ended its time as a dominant political party. Its candidate

Jóvito Villalba Jóvito Villalba Gutiérrez (March 23, 1908 – July 8, 1989), was a Venezuelan lawyer and politician, member of the Generation of 1928, founder of the party URD (''Democratic Republican Union'') and signer of the Puntofijo Pact The Pun ...

won 19% of the vote in the 1963 election, but only 3% in the 1973 election.

Presidential candidates supported

''Elections where the URD backed the winning candidate shown in bold''. * 1952 election:

* 1958 election: Wolfgang Larrazábal (34.88% of vote) * 1963 election:

(18.89%) * 1968 election: Miguel Ángel Burelli Rivas (22.22%) * 1973 election:

(3.07%) * 1978 election:

Luis Herrera Campins Luis Antonio Herrera Campins (4 May 1925 – 9 November 2007) was the president of Venezuela from 1979 to 1984. He was elected to one five-year term in 1978. He was a member of COPEI, a Christian Democratic party. Early life and career Luis ...

( COPEI candidate) * 1983 election:

Jaime Lusinchi Jaime Ramón Lusinchi (27 May 1924 – 21 May 2014) was a Venezuelan politician who was the president of Venezuela from 1984 to 1989. His term was characterized by an economic crisis, growth of the external debt, populist policies, currency dep ...

( Acción Democrática candidate) * 1988 election: Ismenia Villalba (0.84%) * 1993 election:

Rafael Caldera Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez ( (); 24 January 1916 – 24 December 2009), twice elected the president of Venezuela, served for two five-year terms (1969–1974 and 1994–1999), becoming the longest serving democratically elected leade ...

(independent, backed by a coalition of anti- COPEI/ Acción Democrática parties) * 1998 election:

Luis Alfaro Ucero Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

(0.60%) * 2000 election: * 2006 election:

Manuel Rosales Manuel Antonio Rosales Guerrero (born December 12, 1952, in Santa Bárbara del Zulia) is a Venezuelan educator and politician, current governor of Zulia, Venezuela's most populated state. He was the most prominent opposition candidate in the ...

(

A New Era A New Era ( es, Un Nuevo Tiempo, UNT) is a centre-left political party in Venezuela. It received 11% of the vote in the 2008 regional elections. The party arose in Zulia State, Venezuela's most populous, and remains far stronger in its home r ...

candidate)

References

1945 establishments in Venezuela Liberal parties in Venezuela Political parties established in 1945 Political parties in Venezuela {{Venezuela-party-stub