It was formed in 1973 as the Ovamboland Independence Party (OIP) by Silas Ipumbu.
[1] [2]It took the name NDP to contest the elections to the Ovambo Legislative Assembly, by then under the leadership of Cornelius Tuhafeni Ndjoba.
[4] After being dormant for three decades the NDP contested in the 2015 local authority elections in the Zambezi Region but failed to gain a seat.
[5] In 2019 it contested the national assembly election and gathered 4,559 votes (0.6%), not enough to gain a seat in parliament.
[6] It also competed in the 2024 Namibian General Election and received 6,647 votes (0.61%), which gained the party one seat.