United Movement for Democratic Change United Movement for Democratic Change United Movement for Democratic Change is a Zimbabwean political party founded in November 2014 as a merger of two parties descended from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC): the Movement for Democratic Change – Ncube (MDC-N) headed by Welshman Ncube, which broke away from MDC in 2005, and the MDC Renewal Team led by Tendai Biti, which broke away from Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai in 2014 in protest against what they saw as the ineffectual leadership and increasingly authoritarian tendencies of party chairman Morgan Tsvangirai. The party is intended as the core of
Movement for Democratic Change (1999–2005) redistribution to black farmers without compensation. The MDC led opposition to the referendum, in which the government was ultimately defeated, after a low 20% turnout, by a strong urban vote fueled by an effective SMS campaign. Mugabe declared that he would "abide by the will of the people". The vote was a surprise to ZANU-PF, and an embarrassment before parliamentary elections due in mid-April. This success fueled the rise of the MDC. In the 2000 parliamentary elections, the MDC won 57 of the 120 seats up for election. This marked the first time that an opposition party had achieved more