United Democratic Front (Malawi)

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The United Democratic Front (UDF) is a political party in Malawi with headquarters in Lilongwe and places itself in the liberal field. At times the UDF was one of the strongest parties in Malawi alongside the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Together with 26 other parties from 21 African countries, the UDF is part of the Africa Liberal Network .

The United Democratic Front, like many other parties in Malawi, was founded after the one-party state was abolished in a referendum in 1993 and a multi-party system was introduced. Shortly after the founding of the UDF, it became one of the major popular parties in Malawi and from 1994 to 2004, Bakili Muluzi was the President of Malawi. Bakili Muluzi is still chairman of the party today, but was replaced as president in 2004 by Bingu wa Mutharika . In these elections, the UDF achieved only 49 of the 194 seats in parliament. Due to the poor election results and disagreements with other party members, Bingu wa Mutharika left the UDF shortly after his election victory and founded the DPP in February 2005. He was soon followed by other members of the UDF. The 2009 presidential election was won by Bingu wa Mutharika and the DPP. In the 2019 elections , the UDF received 10 of the 193 seats in the National Assembly and thus lost four of the seats it won in 2014.

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