UMP

Uygurıstan Milletlik Partıyaşı People's Party of Uyguristan
Slogan	"Yeņi Tuvış" ("A New Birth")
Nation	Uyguristan
Founded	1990
Headquarters	Ürümçi
Current Membership	NUMBER OF MEMBERS
Representation	NUMBER OF SEATS
Key People	President Kärimjan Quvanıç–ulı
Political Outlook	Neo-Snorist

The Uygurıstan Milletlik Partıyaşı (People's Party of Uyguristan) is effectively a renamed version of the Tokuz Okuz party that has governed Uyguristan since the Snorist liberation in 1949.

Despite officially guaranteed freedom of political association and freedom of speech, the UMP/Tokuz Okuz still dominates Uygur politics. There are a dozen or so other parties, all of which together are about a third of the size of the UMP, and this suits the former Snorist rulers of the country very nicely.

Unlike the former Tokuz Okuz, the UMP legitimises its rule with periodic elections. These have not been at all democratic since the first election in 1991 when secessionist candidates in the Qaşgar region were elected in droves, triggering the Qaşgar War with Turkestan. Since that experiment with representative government, the Tokuz Okuz have been highly sceptical of democracy, but maintain its forms mostly for its own international image and for the illusion of legitimacy.

The last election in 2006 returned 97% of the votes cast to the UMP, a slight improvement (from the perspective of representative government) on the 100% returned to the UMP in the 2000 election, but still farcical as far as international pro-democracy groups are concerned.