The People's Democratic Party was a political party in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. It was formed in 1956 following a split in the

National Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP; ), also referred to by itself as the Original Democratic Unionist Party, is a political party in Sudan, closely tied to the Khatmiyya Sufi order. Established in 1952 as the National Unionist Party (NUP), it i ...

(NUP). Those who left the NUP to form the PDP were largely members of the

Khatmiyya The Khatmiyya is a Sufi order or brotherhood (tariqa) founded by Sayyid Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim. The Khatmiyya is the largest Sufi order in Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. It also has followers in Egypt, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, U ...

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

order. After a period of siding with the Umma party, the PDP would later realign with the NUP, and the two parties merged in 1968 to form the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

Background

The National Unionist Party had been founded in 1953 from supporters of

Ismail al-Azhari Ismail al-Azhari (; October 20, 1900 – August 26, 1969) was a Sudanese nationalist and political figure. He served as the first Prime Minister of Sudan between 1954 and 1956, and as List of heads of state of Sudan, Head of State of Sudan from ...

, and members of the

Sufi order. These two factions sat uneasily with each other, and had been brought together as much for tactical reasons as for ideological cohesion. The initial Azhari-Khatmiyya alliance had come about because the Azhari led urban nationalists lacked a wide enough base to achieve electoral success alone, and had found greater cause with the Khatmiyya than with the Ansar, who would form the Umma party.

Split from the NUP

Despite their union however, the Azhari faction and the Khatmiyya faction lacked ideological cohesion, and this internal divide would form the basis of the split, which saw 21 members of the ruling NUP leaving to form the People's Democratic Party in June 1956.

References

{{Sudanese political parties Defunct political parties in Sudan Islamic political parties in Sudan Political parties established in 1956 Sudanese nationalism