List of banned political parties

This article provides a list of political parties that were or are currently banned by the countries in which they were or are based.

By country

Argentina

In 1943, Pedro Pablo Ramírez banned all political parties after overthrowing the government.

Algeria

Bhutan

Brazil

The Brazilian Communist Party was suppressed during the Vargas Era, but were later able to participate in the 1945 and 1947 elections. However, the party was banned by Eurico Gaspar Dutra in May 1947, and all of its elected officials, baring those elected with support from other parties, were removed from office.

Brazilian Integralist Action was banned after the Integralist Uprising in 1938.

Bulgaria

All political parties were banned in Bulgaria in 1934.

China

Egypt

All political parties were banned in 1953, following the 1952 Egyptian Revolution, but were allowed to exist in 1976.

Eswatini

Georgia

Germany

All political parties were banned in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia after the annexation of Czechoslovakia. During World War II political parties in Luxembourg and Norway were banned following their occupations by Germany.

Greece

Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas banned all political parties in 1936.

Golden Dawn was ruled as a criminal organization in 2020. It was the first party banned in Greece since the end of the Greek junta in 1974. A law passed in 2023 prohibiting parties led by people convicted of crimes from running in elections resulted in Golden Dawn and National Party – Greeks being prohibited from the 2023 Greek legislative election.

Hong Kong

Iran

Iraq

Japan

Douglas MacArthur considered banning the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) on 3 May 1950. Twenty-four members of the JCP's central committee were removed from office in June and its newspaper, Shimbun Akahata, was banned on June 27.

Moldova

Nepal

King Tribhuvan of Nepal banned the Communist Party of Nepal. The Nepali Congress, under the leadership of BP Koirala, won the 1959 election, but King Mahendra of Nepal dissolved the House of Representatives on 15 December 1960. The Rastriya Panchayat was formed and all political parties were banned.

A referendum was held in 1980 to determine whether to maintain the Panchayat system or institute a multi-party system. The Panchayat system was maintained with 54% of the vote. On 6 April 1990, King Birendra of Nepal ended the ban on political parties in response to the 1990 Nepalese revolution and the 1991 election was the first multi-party election since 1960.

Russia

Romania

Prime Minister Patriarch Miron of Romania banned all political parties in 1939.

Spain

Batasuna was the first political party banned following the end of Francisco Franco's dictatorship.

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Jaafar Nimeiry overthrew the government in 1969, and banned all political parties. He was overthrown by a coup d'état in 1985, and a new government was formed by Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab. He legalized political parties, but they were banned again after Omar al-Bashir overthrew the government.

Thailand

All political parties, except for the Democrat Party, were dissolved following the 2006 coup d'état and their members banned from seeking office for five years. Thai Rak Thai Party members joined the People's Power Party after the TRT was banned and then the Pheu Thai Party after the PPP was banned. Thai Nation Party members joined the Chart Thai Pattana Party after their party was banned.

Ukraine

United States

Multiple states, including California, directly banned the Communist Party USA while other state indirectly did so by banning parties that supported overthrowing the government using violence. Communist candidates were removed from the ballot in Arizona and Georgia in 1940, as the secretaries of state ruled that they could not honestly take the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

References

Works cited

• Beinin, Joel (1987). "The Communist Movement and Nationalist Political Discourse in Nasirist Egypt". The Middle East Journal. 21 (2). Middle East Institute: 568–84. doi:10.2307/4327640. JSTOR 4327640.
• Cole, Allan; Totten, George; Uyehara, Cecil (1966). Socialist Parties In Postwar Japan. Yale University Press.
• Ginindza, Banele (1994). Sub-Saharan Africa - 'Banned' Political Parties Profiled. Foreign Broadcast Information Service.
• Karam, Jasem (1993). "The Embourgeoisment Thesis: The Case of Egypt". GeoJournal. 21 (2). Springer Science+Business Media: 413–416. doi:10.2307/41145936. JSTOR 41145936.
• Metz, Helen, ed. (1992). Sudan: A Country Study (4 ed.). Federal Research Division. ISBN 0-8444-0750-X.
• Raeper, William; Hoftun, Martin, eds. (1992). Spring Awakening: An Account of the 1990 Revolution in Nepal (4 ed.). Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-85181-7.
• Sinpeng, Aim (2014). "Party Banning and the Impact on Party System Institutionalization in Thailand". Contemporary Southeast Asia. 36 (3). ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute: 442–66. JSTOR 43281304.
• Upreti, B., ed. (1991). Nation-Building in South Asia. Vol. 2. University of Rajasthan. ISBN 81-7003-130-3.
• Wesson, Robert; Fleischer, David, eds. (1983). Brazil In Transition (4 ed.). Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-91594-8.
• Nepal: Turmoil in the Himalayas. Central Intelligence Agency. 1979.
• "The Legal Status of the Communist Party". Virginia Law Review. 34 (4). The Virginia Law Review Association: 450–456. 1948. doi:10.2307/1068966. JSTOR 1068966.