Unified Lumumbist Party (french: Parti Lumumbiste Unifié or ''PALU'') 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 ...

in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. The party's name comes from

Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba (; 2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as the Republic of the Congo) from June u ...

, the first prime minister of Congo after its independence in 1960 from the

Belgian colonial empire Belgium controlled several territories and concessions during the colonial era, principally the Belgian Congo (modern DRC) from 1908 to 1960 and Ruanda-Urundi (modern Rwanda and Burundi) from 1922 to 1962. It also had small concessions in Guate ...

. It was led by

Antoine Gizenga Antoine Gizenga (5 October 1925 – 24 February 2019) was a Congolese (DRC) politician who was the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 30 December 2006 to 10 October 2008. He was the Secretary-General of the Unified Lumum ...

who placed third in the 2006 general election. Gizenga backed the incumbent president

Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, Pres ...

in the runoff election, and was subsequently named prime minister in December 2006. PALU also won 34 out of 500 seats in the new parliament and became the third largest party. In the 2007 senate election, the party won only 2 out of 108 seats. Gizenga resigned as Prime Minister on 25 September 2008 for reasons related to age and health, and on 10 October 2008 Adolphe Muzito, another member of PALU who had served as Budget Minister under Gizenga, was appointed to succeed him. Muzito served as Prime Minister from 2008 until his resignation on 6 March 2012. In the 2011 general election, PALU lost 15 seats in the lower house, sinking to 19 seats and becoming the sixth largest party in parliament. Additionally, PALU did not choose to field a presidential candidate in the election. In 12–13 December 2014, the party was admitted into the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations ...

as an observer affiliate. On 3 October 2018 PALU and its parliamentary allies exited the Presidential Majority coalition in anticipation of the 2018 general elections.

References

1964 establishments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo African socialist political parties Consultative member parties of the Socialist International Pan-Africanist political parties in Africa Political parties established in 1964 Political parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Socialism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Socialist parties in Africa {{DRCongo-party-stub

See also

References