- Union of the Forces of Progress
Infobox_Political_Party
party_name = Union of the Forces of Progress (UFP
"Union des Forces du Progrès",
Ar: "ittihad quwa al-taqaddum",
fl:"Dental Doole Demokaraasi"
party_
leader =Mohamed Ould Maouloud (President)
Boubakar Moussa Ba (1st Vice-President)
colorcode = Orange
foundation = 1991 (name changed 2000)
ideology =Centre-left ;Republicanism
headquarters = Federal Secretariat
Nouakchott ,Mauritania
international =
website = [http://www.ufpweb.org/ www.ufpweb.org]The Union of the Forces of Progress ("Union des Forces du Progrès", Ar: "ittihad quwa al-taqaddum", fl:"Dental Doole Demokaraasi", UFP) is a left leaning
political party inMauritania .Programme
The UFP describes itself as a cross ethnic, Republican, social justice oriented party. [ [http://ufpweb.org/presentation_ufp/ppol.htm RESUME DU PROGRAMME POLITIQUE DE L’UFP] ] It has made strong statements against the percecution of dark skinned Mauritanians, the continuation of slavery and unfair labor practices, [ [http://ufpweb.org/fr/spip.php?mot61 ufpweb.org] ] and for guarantees of safety and resources for those refugees from the from the 1989 interethnic conflict who remain in Senegal. [ [http://ufpweb.org/ARCHIVES/dec90.htm Déclaration sur les massacres de 1990] . [http://ufpweb.org/fr/spip.php?mot31 ufpweb.org: "Deportees"] .] The UFP has also strongly condemned the involvement of the
Mauritanian Army in politics, specifically the 2005 and 2008 coups. [ [http://fr.ufpweb.org/spip.php?article529 Chantage au coup d’Etat] , Union des Forces de Progrès - Mauritanie, Mohamed Baba 28 June 2008. ] They have called upon Mauritanian political leaders to negotiate a political consensus which would define the "rules of the game" for Mauritanian politics, which they view as divisive, ethnicly charged, and corrupt. [Party Programme (ibid), [http://ufpweb.org/fr/spip.php?article374 Quand nos chauvins montent au créneau...] Gourmo Abdoul LÔ. 17 August 2007. [http://ufpweb.org/fr/spip.php?article374 LA DÉMOCRATIE OU LE JEU DE LA CHAISE MUSICALE EN MAURITANIE] , Moustapha Ould Abderahim Ould Ibn Mogdad, Montréal, 18 Sepetember 2007.]History
The party has its roots in the Kadihine (
Arabic : "toiler", "worker") movement of the Mauritanian 1960s and 1970s, with its organization, the "Parti Kadihine Mauritanien" (PKM) working as a clandestine socialist and anti-colonial oppositional group against the single-party rule ofMokhtar Ould Daddah . The party was composed mostly ofMoor ishArab Mauritanians, although it was opposed to the prevailing racial and ethno-social discrimination, and subsumed an important faction ofBlack African opposition politicians inside its organization. After 1969, the party mended its relations with Ould Daddah after he took several steps to the left, nationalizing the mining industry MIFERMA (today's SNIM) inZouërate , loosening his strong ties with the former colonial powerFrance , and took other measures to strengthen Mauritania's international anticolonial profile. The PKM then divided between a group which agreed to join Ould Daddah's ruling party, the PPM, as a leftist intra-party opposition; and another group which was more reluctant to cooperate with the authorities, and reorganized in new opposition movements, primarily the Mouvement Nationale Démocratique (MND). When Mauritania invadedWestern Sahara in 1975 to establish aGreater Mauritania , in collaboration with Morocco, the Kadihines again took a strong stance against the regime, and in favor ofSahrawi self-determination and thePolisario Front (with which the UFP retains strong relations even today). After the 1978coup d'état , the movement lost much influence, as politics moved over into the military sphere.The modern UFP began as a faction of the Union of Democratic Forces-New Era (UFD). At an extraordinary party congress called by this faction in August 1998, it elected MND leader
Mohamed Ould Maouloud as its president, and this caused a split in the party. The opposing faction, led byAhmed Ould Daddah , was dubbed the UFD/A, while Maouloud's faction was dubbed the UFD/B. The latter faction participated in the January 1999 local election, which was boycotted by the former. In late 2000, the UFD/A was dissolved by the government, and the UFD/B changed its own name in solidarity, now calling itself the Union of the Forces of Progress. [ [http://www.ufpweb.org/presentation_ufp/hist.htm History of the UFP at the party's web site] fr icon.]In the parliamentary election held on 19 and 26 October 2001, the party won 3 out of 81 seats. [ [http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2207_01.htm IPU PARLINE page on 2001 parliamentary election] .] [http://africanelections.tripod.com/mr.html Elections in Mauritania] , African Elections Database.]
In the November-December 2006 parliamentary election, the UFP participated in the
Coalition of the Forces of Democratic Change . The UFP won eight seats (three in the first round and five in the second round), as well as two other seats together with theRally of Democratic Forces . [http://www.ipu.org/parline-f/reports/1207_E.htm IPU page on 2006 parliamentary election] fr icon.] OnJanuary 2 2007 , the party held a congress and designated its president, Maouloud, as its candidate for the March 2007 presidential election. [ [http://www.ami.mr/fr/articles/2007/Janvier/2/13.html "L'UFP présente son candidat aux prochaines élections présidentielles"] , Agence Mauritanienne d'Information, January 2, 2007 fr icon.] [ [http://www.ami.mr/fr/articles/2007/Janvier/3/5.html "Le Président de l'UFP candidat aux Présidentielles de 2007"] , Agence Mauritanienne d'Information, January 3, 2007 fr icon.] In the election, Maouloud took seventh place in the first round with 4.08% of the vote. Maouloud then backed Daddah in the second round. [ [http://apanews.net/spip.php?page=show_article&id_article=23793 "Mauritania : Ould Daddah gets support of seventh place holder for presidential runoff"] , African Press Agency, March 19, 2007.] In the21 January and4 February 2007 Senate elections it joined theRally of Democratic Forces and won 1 seat.On
May 10 2008 , Maouloud announced the party's decision to participate in the government of Prime MinisterYahya Ould Ahmed El Waghef ; [ [http://www.ami.mr/fr/articles/2008/Mai/10/08.html "L'UFP décide de participer au gouvernement attendu"] , AMI, May 10, 2008 fr icon.] the party was accordingly one of two opposition parties to be included in Waghef's government, the composition of which was announced onMay 11 . [ [http://www.jeuneafrique.com/fluxafp/fil_info.asp?art_cle=45651 "Mauritanie: formation d'un gouvernement de 30 membres dont 4 de l'opposition"] , AFP (Jeuneafrique.com), May 11, 2008 fr icon.] This government only survived until July 2008, however.Following the August 2008 coup, the UFP joined a four-party coalition, the National Front for the Defence of Democracy, which opposed the coup and demanded the restoration of President
Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi . [ [http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gIVIWQqpQ8lgFNUCXIqtHVCOF5JQ "Mauritanian parliament opens special session"] , AFP, August 20, 2008.]References
External links
* [http://www.ufpweb.org/ Official website]
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