National Democratic Party (Iraq, 1946)

The National Democratic Party (Arabic: الحزب الوطني الديمقراطي‎, Hizb al Wataniyah al Dimuqratiyah) was an Iraqi political party.

Part of a series on the
History of Iraq
Prehistory Ubaid period Hassuna culture Halaf culture Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period Samarra culture (Eridu) Uruk period Jemdet Nasr Period
Bronze Age Sumer Assyria Akkadian Empire Simurrum Babylonia Neo-Assyrian Empire Neo-Babylonian Empire Median Kingdom
Iron Age Achaemenid Assyria Seleucid Babylonia Parthian Babylonia Roman Mesopotamia Sasanian Asorestan
Middle Ages Islamic conquest Rashidun Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate Hamdanids Buyid amirate of Iraq Marwanids Uqaylids Al-Mazeedi Ayyubids Seljuk Empire Zengids Ilkhanate Jalairid Sultanate Kara Koyunlu Aq Qoyunlu
Early modern period Safavids Ottoman Iraq Mamluk dynasty
Modern Iraq Mandatory Iraq Kingdom of Iraq Republic (1958–68) Ba'athist rule (1968–2003) Occupation (2003–11) Recent history
Iraq portal

The party was founded in 1946 as a left-leaning opposition movement that modeled itself after the British Labour Party and grouped the non-Communist left-wing members of the former Ahali group, of which five out of its eight cofounders had been members. It advocated workers' rights, land reform and social democracy.[1]

At the 1948 Iraqi parliamentary election, the NDP got 2 seats out of 138.

The party was closely linked with the government of Abd al-Karim Qasim, in which, out of fourteen ministers, three (Finances, Agriculture, Guiding) were NDP members, one (Foreign Affairs) was 'close to NDP', and two (Development, Communications) were former NDP members, all either Arab Sunnis, Arab Shias or Kurdish Sunni.[1]

With the Nasserite coup in 1963, the party officially ceased to exist.

It was however revived in 2003 under the same name by Naseer al-Chaderchi, son of NDP former leader Kamil al-Chaderchi.