View source for United Democrats

{{short description|Political party on Cyprus}}
{{for multi|the political party on [[Sint Maarten]]|United Democrats (Sint Maarten)|one of the two predecessors of the [[Democratic Party (Hong Kong)|Democratic Party]] in Hong Kong|United Democrats of Hong Kong}}
{{multiple issues|
{{one source|date=April 2014}}
{{primary sources|date=April 2014}}
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{{Infobox political party
| country = Cyprus
| name = United Democrats
| native_name = Ενωμένοι Δημοκράτες
| logo = United Democrats logo.png
|position=[[Centrism|Centre]]
| leader = [[Praxoula Antoniadou]]
| colorcode = gold
| foundation = 1993
| ideology = [[Cypriotism]]<br>[[Liberalism]]<br/>[[Pro-Europeanism]]
| headquarters = [[Nicosia]], [[Cyprus]]
| international = [[Liberal International]] (2014–2022)
| european = [[Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party|Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe]]
| europarl = 
| colours = Yellow, Green, Red
| website = {{url|http://www.edi.org.cy}}
}}

The '''United Democrats''' ({{langx|el|Ενωμένοι Δημοκράτες (ΕΔΗ)}}, ''Enomenoi Dimokrates'' ('''EDI''')) is a [[Liberalism|liberal]] [[list of political parties in Cyprus|political party]] in [[Cyprus]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Nordsieck|first=Wolfram|date=2011|url=http://www.parties-and-elections.eu/cyprus.html|title=Cyprus|website=Parties and Elections in Europe|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320022259/http://www.parties-and-elections.de/cyprus.html|archivedate=20 March 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> The party was founded by former [[President of Cyprus]] [[George Vasiliou]] in 1993 as ''Kinima Eleftheron Dimokraton'' ("Movement of Free Democrats"). The party later merged with ADISOK (a group of former [[AKEL]] members, including Andreas Fantis, [[Andreas Ziartides]] and Pavlos Diglis) to form United Democrats.
The party is a full member of the [[Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party|Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aldeparty.eu/members/member-parties|title=Member Parties|website=[[Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party]]|access-date=2020-05-30|archive-date=2019-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526170823/https://www.aldeparty.eu/members/member-parties|url-status=dead}}</ref> and an observer member of the [[Liberal International]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://liberal-international.org/our-members/regions/europe/|title=Europe|website=[[Liberal International]]}}</ref>

==History==
At the [[legislative]] [[elections in Cyprus|elections]], on 27 May 2001, the party won 2.6% of the popular vote and 1 out of 56 seats.

During the [[2004 Annan Plan Referendum]], the party supported the [[Annan Plan for Cyprus]].

In 2005 the party's president [[George Vasiliou]] stepped down and [[Michalis Papapetrou]] was elected president. In the [[2006 Cypriot legislative election|elections of 21 May 2006]], the party won only 1.6% and lost parliamentary representation. After the loss of parliamentary representation, [[Michalis Papapetrou]] expressed the will to resign as the party leader . In March 2007 vice-president [[Praxoula Antoniadou]] took the leadership of the party.

In the 2011 Legislative Elections, the United Democrats decided to support the governing party, AKEL. The party leader [[Praxoula Antoniadou]] was a candidate MP for AKEL.

In August 2011, President Demetris Christofias appointed United Democrats party leader [[Praxoula Antoniadou]] as Minister for the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus.

==Presidents==

*1996-2005: [[George Vasiliou]]
*2005-2007: [[Michalis Papapetrou]]
*2007-Current: [[Praxoula Antoniadou]]

==See also==
*[[Liberalism]]
*[[Contributions to liberal theory]]
*[[Liberalism worldwide]]
*[[List of liberal parties]]
*[[Liberal democracy]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.edi.org.cy/ United Democrats] official website
{{Cypriotic political parties}}
{{ELDR member parties}}

[[Category:1993 establishments in Cyprus]]
[[Category:Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties]]
[[Category:Cypriot nationalism]]
[[Category:Observer parties of the Liberal International|Cyprus]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1993]]
[[Category:Political parties in Cyprus]]
[[Category:Pro-European political parties in Cyprus]]
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{{Europe-liberal-party-stub}}