Democratic Republican Union

For the French Third Republic group, see Democratic and Republican Union.

Democratic Republican Union Unión Republicana Democrática
Founder	Jóvito Villalba
Founded	18 December 1945
Headquarters	Caracas
Ideology	Liberalism[1] Social liberalism Civic nationalism Progressivism Reformism
Political position	Centre to centre-left[2][3][4]
Colours	Yellow
Politics of Venezuela Political parties Elections

The Democratic Republican Union (Spanish: Unión Republicana Democrática, URD) is a Venezuelan political party founded in 1945.

History

When the party appeared on course to win the 1952 election for a constituent assembly, then-dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez suspended the election.[5] The party joined in the 1958 Puntofijo Pact, and its candidate in that year's presidential election, Wolfgang Larrazábal, was the runner-up. The party resigned from the Puntofijo Pact in 1962 in protest of the decision to exclude Cuba from the Organization of American States, which ended its time as a dominant political party. Its candidate Jóvito Villalba won 19% of the vote in the 1963 election, but only 3% in the 1973 election.

Presidential candidates supported

Elections where the URD backed the winning candidate shown in bold.

• 1952 election: Jóvito Villalba
• 1958 election: Wolfgang Larrazábal (34.88% of vote)
• 1963 election: Jóvito Villalba (18.89%)
• 1968 election: Miguel Ángel Burelli Rivas (22.22%)
• 1973 election: Jóvito Villalba (3.07%)
• 1978 election: Luis Herrera Campins (COPEI candidate)
• 1983 election: Jaime Lusinchi (Acción Democrática candidate)
• 1988 election: Ismenia Villalba (0.84%)
• 1993 election: Rafael Caldera (independent, backed by a coalition of anti-COPEI/Acción Democrática parties)
• 1998 election: Luis Alfaro Ucero (0.60%)
• 2000 election:
• 2006 election: Manuel Rosales (A New Era candidate)

References

1. Allan R. Brewer-Carías (2010), Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela, Cambridge University Press, p. 41
2. Leslie Bethell, ed. (2008), The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. VI, part 1, Cambridge University Press, p. 440
3. Ian Gorvin (1989), Elections since 1945: A worldwide reference compendium, Longman, p. 391
4. J. Denis Derbyshire; Ian Derbyshire (1989), Political Systems Of The World, Chambers, p. 122
5. Historia viva, 2002-2003, Jorge Olavarría. 2003. (page 134).