The party supported the continuation of the leading role of the governor-general, and rejected mass dismissals of British administrators.
[11] It won support mainly in regions were the legacy of Muhammad Ahmad (father of the Umma Party leader Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi) was remembered as violent and repressive.
[5] Through the launching the Socialist Republican Party the Sudan Political Service (a British colonial government institution) sought to win support from Khatimyya voters in order to counter the influence of al-Mahdi.
[7][15] Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi perceived the party as a British conspiracy and an immediate threat to his political life, and set out to destroy it.
[16] The Socialist Republican Party won three seats in the House of Representatives in the 1953 election, two from Blue Nile and one from Darfur.