Formed by Dr. Daniel Shumba, a former provincial chairman of Masvingo and member of the Central Committee of ZANU-PF,[1] it called for opposition to the ZANU-PF, the nation's ruling party, claiming it had subjected Zimbabweans to poverty, hopelessness and victims of misrule, greed, brutality, terror, corruption and dictatorship.
"[2] Party candidates ran for the first time in the by-elections of Chiredzi South and Zaka East in February and March 2007, respectively.
In the 2008 parliamentary election, the party put forward 79 candidates for the House of Assembly and 27 for the Senate in eight of Zimbabwe's ten provinces.
[3] The ZANU-PF government was also accused of suspending Shumba's TeleAccess telecommunication licence as punishment for pursuing a democratic agenda back when he was Chairman in ZANU-PF's Masvingo province division.
Although the UPP supported a true government of national unity (GNU), the power-sharing after the 2008 elections did not include them.