The Democratic Union of the Malian People (, UDPM) was a military-backed political party in Mali. Its main organ was the daily newspaper L'Essor – La Voix du Peuple, which had a circulation of 40,000. It was the largest newspaper in the country during the mid-1980s.
History
The party was founded by the CMLN military junta to provide the regime with political legitimacy. Moussa Traoré announced the party's formation on 22 September 1975, with himself as general secretary. Upon the restoration of civilian rule in 1979, it became the only legal party in Mali.
The UDPM borrowed from Modibo Keïta's conception of democratic centralism and organized itself along the lines of Marxism–Leninism, although it never identified itself as a Marxist party. UDPM had a Central Executive Bureau with 19 members and a National Council with 137 members.