The Cameroon Democratic Union () 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, ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

. It was founded by Adamou Ndam Njoya, a former Minister of National Education under President

Ahmadou Ahidjo Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo (24 August 192430 November 1989) was a Cameroonian politician who was the first president of Cameroon from 1960 until 1982. He was previously the first Prime Minister of Cameroon, Prime Minister from the country's indepe ...

, on 26 April 1991. The CDU boycotted the March 1992 parliamentary election, along with the Social Democratic Front (SDF) due to the government's failure to meet opposition demands, which included the establishment of an independent electoral commission to oversee the election. In the May 1997 parliamentary election, the UDC won five seats, all of them in Noun Department in the West Province. It then boycotted the October 1997 presidential election, along with the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP). In the

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

held on 30 June and 15 September 2002, the UDC won five seats, all in Noun Department, out of 180 seats nationwide. Adamou Ndam Njoya and

John Fru Ndi Ni John Fru Ndi (7 July 1941 – 12 June 2023) was a Cameroonian politician who served as first and founding Chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the main opposition party in Cameroon, from party foundation in 1990 to his death in 202 ...

failed to agree on the designation of an all-opposition single candidate for the

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 p ...

of 11 October 2004. As a result, Ndam Njoya represented a coalition of political parties, the Coalition for National Reconciliation and Reconstruction, and placed third in the final ballot count, winning 4.47% (168,318 votes). Njoya was re-elected for another five-year term as CDU Chairman at a party congress in

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the Capital city, capital city of Cameroon. It has a population of more than 2.8 million which makes it the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region (Cameroon), Centre Region o ...

, attended by about 3,000 delegates, on 30 November–2 December 2006; there was no challenger for the position. The UDC won four out of the 163 initially declared seats in the July 2007 parliamentary election; it won all four of these seats in the Noun Centre constituency, where the party received 58.28% of the vote. The UDC did not gain any seats in the partial election, held in September, for 17 seats where the initial results were annulled. At the time of the 2007 election, the CDU formed an alliance with the

Progressive Movement Progressivism is a left-leaning political philosophy and reform movement that seeks to advance the human condition through social reform. Adherents hold that progressivism has universal application and endeavor to spread this idea to huma ...

(MP) of Jean-Jacques Ekindi, agreeing not to run candidates in the Wouri Centre constituency, where the MP was competing.

Electoral history

Presidential Elections

National Assembly elections

References

{{Authority control Political parties in Cameroon Political parties established in 1991 1991 establishments in Cameroon