The party's members included three presidents of Kyrgyzstan: Roza Otunbayeva, Almazbek Atambayev and Sooronbay Jeenbekov.

The party gained popularity on the slogans of social justice against the backdrop of privatization, economic stagnation and corruption scandals.

[9] On 29 July 1999, at a meeting of the SDPK political council, Atambayev handed over the post of party leader to the speaker of the lower house of the Jogorku Kenesh, Abdygany Erkebayev [ru].

[10][11] On 20 May 2004, the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) agreed to join the For Fair Elections electoral alliance.

In October 2004, the El Party led by Melis Eshimkanov merged with the SDPK in preparation for the February 2005 parliamentary elections.

[7] In the 2007 parliamentary election, the leader on the SDPK list was Omurbek Babanov, but due to a scandal with his Kazakh citizenship, he was unable to receive a mandate and handed it over to Roza Otunbayeva.

In its program, the party proposed to continue lending to small businesses, ensure low interest rates on loans, continue the state's implementation of projects to develop entrepreneurship, ensure the creation of free economic zones, and increase responsibility for unjustified inspections of businesses by fiscal and law enforcement agencies.