The Rally for Democracy and Development (Rassemblement pour la Démocratie et le Développement; RDD) is a political party in the Republic of the Congo. It has been one of the main participants in a coalition known as the African Socialist Movement-Congolese Progressive Party (MSA-PPC).[1]
In the June 1993 parliamentary election, the party won six seats in the National Assembly, and it was part of the governing coalition of President Pascal Lissouba,[2][5] with Yhombi-Opango serving as Prime Minister from 1993 to 1996.[2] The RDD was loyal to Lissouba during the 1997 civil war, and when rebels loyal to Denis Sassou Nguesso captured Brazzaville in October 1997, Yhombi-Opango fled into exile. Saturnin Okabé served as Interim President of the RDD during Yhombi-Opango's 10 years in exile.
A dispute in the RDD leadership emerged in 2005. Yhombi-Opango asked the party leadership to approach Sassou Nguesso's Congolese Labour Party (PCT), but Okabé refused to do so; Yhombi-Opango reacted angrily to this refusal.[6]
The party did not participate in the June–August 2007 parliamentary election. The party initially intended to participate, but later, in a statement on June 8, said that it would not because it did not believe the election would be free and fair.[7]
An amnesty for Yhombi-Opango was approved in May 2007, and he returned from exile on August 10, 2008.[8] At a meeting of the RDD Steering Committee on September 8, 2007, he reassumed the leadership of the party from Okabé and Secretary-General Martial Mathieu Kani. On this occasion, Yhombi-Opango announced his intention to reorganize the party and improve its position on the national political scene.[9]
On February 23, 2009, the formation of an alliance between the PCT and the RDD was announced. The parties agreed to present a single candidate in the 2009 presidential election, and the RDD agreed to join the government if their joint candidate (presumed to be Denis Sassou Nguesso) won the election.[12]
Expressing unhappiness with its treatment by the PCT, especially with regard to the September 2014 local elections, the RDD announced that it was suspending its participation in the presidential majority (the broad coalition of parties supporting Sassou Nguesso) on 11 December 2014.[15]