United Independents' Congress, Jamaica's third political party

The Joseph Patterson-led UIC is based in the breadbasket parish of St Elizabeth. It had submitted its application to the UIC in February.

“We are pleased that another political party has been successfully registered. I believe this indicates that our democracy is moving in a positive direction. I encourage other political parties to seek to formalise their registration with the ECJ,” said the Commission’s Chairman, Dorothy Pine-McLarty.

The UIC will now be eligible to contest future elections as a registered political party and will have its finances monitored by the ECJ.

Before political parties were required to register and have their finances monitored by the ECJ, the National Democratic Movement (NDM), founded by Bruce Golding in the mid-1990s, was widely accepted as Jamaica’s third political party.

In its first contested general election in 1997, the NDM won five per cent of the vote but failed to capture a seat in the parliament. Golding would eventually return to the JLP in 2002 and led the party to victory in the 2007 general election.