Unified Lumumbist Party (French: Parti Lumumbiste Unifié or PALU) is a political party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The party's name comes from Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of Congo after its independence in 1960 from the Belgian colonial empire.

Unified Lumumbist Party
Parti Lumumbiste Unifié
AbbreviationPALU
Founded22 August 1964 (1964-08-22)
Split fromCongolese National Movement
Headquarters6, Rue Cannas, Limete, Kinshasa
IdeologyLumumbism
Pan-Africanism
African socialism
African nationalism
Left-wing nationalism
Political positionLeft-wing
National affiliationAlliance of the Presidential Majority
International affiliationSocialist International (Consultative)
ColoursRed, White
National Assembly
17 / 500
Senate
2 / 108

It was led by Antoine Gizenga who placed third in the 2006 general election. Gizenga backed the incumbent president Joseph Kabila in the runoff election, and was subsequently named prime minister in December 2006. PALU also won 34 out of 500 seats in the new parliament and became the third largest party. In the 2007 senate election, the party won only two out of 108 seats.

Gizenga resigned as prime minister on 25 September 2008 for reasons related to age and health, and on 10 October 2008 Adolphe Muzito, another member of PALU who had served as Budget Minister under Gizenga, was appointed to succeed him. Muzito served as prime minister from 2008 until his resignation on 6 March 2012.[1]

In the 2011 general election, PALU lost 15 seats in the lower house, sinking to 19 seats and becoming the sixth largest party in parliament. Additionally, PALU did not choose to field a presidential candidate in the election.

In 12–13 December 2014, the party was admitted into the Socialist International as an observer affiliate.[2] On 3 October 2018, PALU and its parliamentary allies exited the Presidential Majority coalition in anticipation of the 2018 general elections.[3]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "DR Congo president names new prime minister: report" Archived 2011-05-20 at the Wayback Machine, AFP, 10 October 2008.
  2. ^ "Socialist International - Progressive Politics For A Fairer World". www.socialistinternational.org. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  3. ^ "PALU-Majorité : le divorce est consommé !". mediacongo.net (in French). Media Congo Press. 3 October 2018. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.