The Union of Moderate Parties (Union des Partis Moderés) is a conservative Francophone political party in Vanuatu. At the last legislative elections, 1 September 2008, the party won 7 out of 52 seats. Until 2008, it was by far the most popular political party among the French-speaking community in Vanuatu.
The party's influence grew after internal difficulties caused the Vanua'aku Pati government to fall in 1991. The UMP was the governing party in Vanuatu from 1991 to 1998. Former prime ministers Maxime Carlot Korman and Serge Vohor came from this party. However, the UMP suffered internal struggles of its own, and in the late 1990s, Corman left to form the Vanuatu Republican Party. Serge Vohor who hails from the Island Of Santo remains the president of UMP. It won 12 seats in the 1998 elections, 15 seats in the 2002 elections and 9 seats in the 2004 elections. Despite the obvious setback, Vohor was able to form a coalition government in August 2004, but lost a confidence vote four months later. From then until the 2008 elections, Vohor and the UMP sometimes were coalition partners in the Lini government, and at other times were in the opposition, serving as the largest opposition force. After the 2008 elections, the party remains an important political grouping, but is not expected to form the next government.
Serge Vohor has led the party since 1988. In February 2012, he was re-elected leader of the party, prior to the general election in October. This marks a longevity record for the leadership of any political party in Vanuatu.
Famous quotes containing the words union of, union, moderate and/or parties:
“If the union of these States, and the liberties of this people, shall be lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two years of age, but a great deal to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United States, and to their posterity in all coming time.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“[With the Union saved] its form of government is saved to the world; its beloved history, and cherished memories, are vindicated; and its happy future fully assured, and rendered inconceivably grand.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“I have this hope in God that he will hear our prayers, given the firm faith we place in him: and that he will accomplish this wish of ours, seeing as it is a moderate one.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“This will not be disloyalty but will show that as members of a party they are loyal first to the fine things for which the party stands and when it rejects those things or forgets the legitimate objects for which parties exist, then as a party it cannot command the honest loyalty of its members.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)