Thystère Tchicaya founded the RDPS on 29 October 1990, after splitting from another opposition group, the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP).[1] The RDPS won nine seats in the June–July 1992 parliamentary election.[2]
In the parliamentary election held on 24 June and 5 August 2007, the party won two out of 137 seats.[6]
RDPS President Thystère Tchicaya died on 20 June 2008.[7]Bernard Batchi succeeded him as Interim President of the RDPS.[8] Later, the party was led by Thystère Tchicaya's son, Jean-Marc Thystère Tchicaya. On 10 August 2015 he was nominated Minister of Hydrocarbures, allowing RDPS to formally join the government.[9] In January 2016, the party pledged its support for Denis Sassou Nguesso in the March 2016 presidential election.[10]
The party contested the 2017 parliamentary election as part of the presidential majority winning only three out of 151 seats.[11] Following the election Jean-Marc Thystère Tchicaya was reconfirmed ad Minister of Hydrocarbures in the newly formed Clément Mouamba's second cabinet.[12] In the 2021 presidential election the party supported once again Sassou Nguesso's candidacy, that was reelected for his fourth term.[13] The following year, in the occasion of the 2022 parliamentary election the party obtained only two seats, one down from the previous election.
^Joachim Emmanuel Goma-Thethet, "Alliances in the political and electoral process in the Republic of Congo 1991–97", in Liberal Democracy and Its Critics in Africa: Political Dysfunction and the Struggle for Social Progress (2005), ed. Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Zed Books, page 118.
^"Congo: Pointe-Noire mayor declares his party's support for Sassou-Nguesso", Radio France Internationale, 20 October 1997.
