The United Christian Democratic Party is a minor political party in South Africa. It was founded by Lucas Mangope, leader of the Bophuthatswana bantustan in 1997, as a successor to the Tswana National Party, and led by him for the first fifteen years of its existence. Mavis Matladi was elected as its leader on 29 January 2011 after the expulsion of Mangope. Matladi died in December 2011. Isaac Sipho Mfundisi was elected president on Saturday, 7 January 2012.
Most of the party's support comes from the North West province (where the old Bophuthatswana was located), and it has very little presence elsewhere in the country. The UCDP was the official opposition to the African National Congress in the North West province in 1999 and 2004, but slipped to 4th in the provincial legislature in 2009.
At the 2009 elections, the party won 66,086 votes (0.37% of the national total), and 2 seats in Parliament, representing a loss of approximately 50% of its support, and 1 seat, from the preceding elections.
In the provincial elections, their support dropped from 8.49% and 3 seats in the 2004 North West provincial election, to 5,27% and 2 seats in 2009. In 2009, in six of the other provinces, they gained less than 0.1% support.
The party's mission statement stresses the need for Christian values, non-racial democracy, and government inducements for personal self-reliance, while the 2004 manifesto attacked the ANC for, among other things, its alleged softness on crime, nepotism, and neglect of South African infrastructure.
A 2003 survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council found that 85% of UCDP voters were female.
Read more about United Christian Democratic Party: Election Results
Famous quotes containing the words democratic party, united, christian, democratic and/or party:
“The Republican party makes even its young men seem old; the Democratic Party makes even its old men seem young.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)
“... when we shall have our amendment to the Constitution of the United States, everyone will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people believe that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses were always hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon to-day has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“We have been educated to such a fine—or dull—point that we are incapable of enjoying something new, something different, until we are first told what it’s all about. We don’t trust our five senses; we rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation. In short, the blind lead the blind. It’s the democratic way.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“I am proud to be a member of a party that opens its doors to all men—and closes its hearts to none.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)