New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party Nieuwe Democratische Partij 新民主党 Xīn Mínzhǔdǎng 新民主党 Shin-Minshutō
File:NewDemocraticPartyLogo.png
Founded	28 May 1920
Dissolved	4 July 1985
Split from	Social Democratic Party
Split into	Liberal Democrats Progressive Party
Ideology	Centrism Classical liberalism Social liberalism Pro-multiculturalism
Political position	Centre to centre-left
Colour	Gold

The New Democratic Party (NDP or New Democrats, colloquially known as the New Dems) was a liberal political party in Enderron that existed from 1920 to 1985. It was represented in the Enderronian legislature from 1923 to 1966, 1968 to 1970 and 1974 to 1978. The party was the main third force in Enderronian politics for most of the mid-20th century.

The party was originally founded as a centrist liberal party positioned between the centre-left Social Democrats and conservative Enderron People's Party and later the United Party. It was established by former Democratic Party members who opposed the merger with the Labour Party.

The NDP was a heavy supporter of free trade (especially with neighbouring Dutch Mariana), welfare and personal liberty. Under early leaders Ray Dodson and Des Dunstan the party maintained a classical liberal platform. It gave confidence and supply to the Social Democratic government from 1930 to 1934, holding significant sway over the government's economic recovery plan during the Great Depression. It also gave confidence and supply to the governing United Party from 1945 to 1946, during which it influenced the government to adopt preferential voting, restore voting rights to Japanese Enderronians, and abolish the Legislative Council and rural malapportionment. After World War II the party expanded its liberal platform and advocated for Enderronian republicanism, official multiculturalism, anti-discrimination legislation and the abolition of race-based immigration, and became the favoured party among the Asian Enderronian community. In the 1950s, it was the first party to elect an Asian Enderronian leader (Ken Murayama) and to regularly run Asian Enderronian candidates for federal parliament; six of the first ten Asian Enderronians elected to parliament came from the NDP.

The NDP entered a period of significant decline in the late 1950s through a combination of factors. After World War II, the Enderronian political landscape began to coalesce around the Social Democrats and United Party. From 1958 onwards, the Social Democratic Party under leaders Calvin Rhinehart and Jens Larsson began shifting its positions on immigration and multiculturalism amid changing cultural stances, and adopted many of the same stances as the NDP. The New Democratic Party lost all but one seat in the 1962 election, and was completely shut out in 1966. The party's fortunes turned around following the appointment of Susan Liew as leader in 1967, winning a by-election in Lynn in 1968, and Liew holding Chung'an from 1974 to 1978. However, by the mid-1970s the party had become marginalised in the political landscape as Asian Enderronian voters, once its core constituency, shifted en masse towards the Social Democrats, and it became embroiled in unstable leadership and factionalism between the centrist classical liberal and centre-left social liberal wings.

By the late 1970s, the party had moved back towards a classical liberal position, but continued to face intra-party factional disputes until it was dissolved in 1985. The two main factions became the classical liberal Liberal Democrats, which later merged with the Conservative Party to form the modern Liberal Party, and the social liberal Progressive Party, which later further split, with one faction merging with the Greens and the other becoming the Unity Party.

Federal party leaders

No.	Name	Term began	Term ended	Time in office
1	Ray Dodson	28 May 1920	5 May 1925	4 years, 342 days
2	Des Dunstan	5 May 1925	31 July 1939	14 years, 87 days
3	Jacob Grimmond	31 July 1939	15 March 1947	7 years, 227 days
4	Joe Steele	15 March 1947	3 December 1951	4 years, 263 days
5	Douglas Davidson	3 December 1951	25 June 1954	2 years, 204 days
6	Ken Murayama	25 June 1954	1 October 1954	98 days
7	James Jin	1 October 1954	15 September 1962	7 years, 349 days
8	Walt Misaka	15 September 1962	30 November 1965	3 years, 76 days
9	K. T. Wetherill	30 November 1965	16 January 1967	1 year, 47 days
(8)	Walt Misaka	16 January 1967	4 May 1967	108 days
10	Susan Liew	4 May 1967	26 October 1977	10 years, 175 days
11	Nathan Garland	26 October 1977	17 August 1978	295 days
12	Charles Koh	17 August 1978	25 September 1981	3 years, 39 days
13	Adam Steggall	25 September 1981	4 July 1985	3 years, 282 days

Election results

Election	Seats won	±	Total votes	%	Position	Government	Leader
1923	4 / 66	4	152,490	6.29%	3rd	Crossbench	Ray Dodson
1926	2 / 66	2	169,348	6.74%	3rd	Crossbench	Des Dunstan
1930	2 / 65	0	136,643	5.01%	3rd	Crossbench (C&S to SDP)
1934	2 / 68	0	291,503	9.57%	3rd	Crossbench
1937	4 / 70	2	275,104	8.24%	3rd	Crossbench
1940	5 / 70	1	298,630	9.13%	3rd	Crossbench	Jacob Grimmond
1945	6 / 70	1	225,546	10.24%	3rd	Crossbench (C&S to UP)
1946	4 / 75	2	315,753	11.65%	3rd	Crossbench
1950	8 / 100	4	298,031	9.18%	3rd	Crossbench	Joe Steele
1954	5 / 100	3	239,352	5.75%	3rd	Crossbench	Ken Murayama
1958	7 / 100	2	246,811	5.53%	3rd	Crossbench	James Jin
1962	1 / 100	6	349,557	7.07%	3rd	Crossbench
1966	0 / 125	1	214,394	4.05%	4th	No seats	K. T. Wetherill
1970	0 / 125	0	664,415	6.23%	3rd	No seats	Susan Liew
1974	1 / 125	1	866,258	7.60%	3rd	Crossbench
1978	0 / 125	1	1,200,647	9.99%	5th	No seats	Charles Koh
1982	0 / 125	0	1,091,351	8.80%	4th	No seats	Adam Steggall