The National Unity Front ( Spanish: ''Frente de Unidad Nacional'') is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. It was founded in late 2003 by Samuel Jorge Doria Medina Auza, who had broken with the Revolutionary Left Movement earlier that year. It has 36 members of the Chamber of Deputies in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. Despite its substantial share of the urban vote, and 16 former mayors, it does not control any city halls or governorships. The party is closely identified with Doria Medina's cement company Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (Soboce). In describing itself, National Unity emphasizes pro-development economic policies and support for democratic governance. Its mission statement calls for "a democratic Bolivia with solidarity, in full development, respectful of human rights, conscious of its diversity, and forging its own destiny". In founding the party, cement magnate Doria Medina called for policies to favor "those entrepreneurs who generate employment and are absent from national decisionmaking". The party seeks to position itself as a moderate third force in Bolivian politics. Its electoral base is the urban middle class. At the

legislative A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

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

in 2005, the party won 7.8% of the popular vote and 8 out of 130 seats in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

and one out of 27 seats 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 ...

. Its candidate at the presidential elections, Doria Medina, won 7.8% of the popular vote. In the 2009 elections, Medina ran again and won 5.65% of the vote. The party won three seats in the Chamber of Deputies but none in the Senate. As of 2013, Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Tribunal certified a list of 69,844 members, although the party claims to have 120,000 on its rolls. In the 2010 regional elections, UN formed alliances with Popular Consensus in Cochabamba and Chuquisaca departments ( All for Cochabamba (TPC) and

We Are All Chuquisaca We Are All Chuquisaca (), was an electoral alliance created for the 2010 Bolivian regional elections that were held on April 4, 2010, in Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. History John Cava, the former president of the Chuquisaca Civic Committe ...

, respectively), becoming the largest opposition grouping. Running independently, it was the third-largest party in La Paz and Oruro departments. At the municipal level, the party did not win any mayors' races, after gaining control of 16 in 2004. It obtained municipal council representation in La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba (where candidate Arturo Murillo narrowly failed to win the mayorship but TPC won five of the eleven seats equaling the governing party's share), and Oruro. In El Alto, Soledad Chapetón was narrowly defeated by MAS-IPSP candidate Edgar Patana, while the party won 3 of 11 council seats. As of 2013, Chapetón is the vice president of the party. In the 2014 general election, the presidential candidate was its party leader Medina, who in this election was the second-most voted with 24.23% and the party won 9 senators and 36 deputies, becoming the main opposition party to Evo Morales' government. In March 2017 National Unity Front was accepted as a member in the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...

References

{{Bolivian political parties 2003 establishments in Bolivia Political parties established in 2003 Political parties in Bolivia Social democratic parties in Bolivia