Bermuda has a three-party system, which means that there are three political parties: the Progressive Labour Party (PLP), the One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) and the Free Democratic Movement. From 1968 — Bermuda's first party-based election — to 1998, the United Bermuda Party (UBP) controlled Parliament. In 1998, it was supplanted by the slightly older PLP. Most UBP members merged with a breakaway party called the Bermuda Democratic Alliance in 2011 to form the OBA. The PLP and OBA currently hold all of the seats in the House of Assembly and were the only two parties with offices and organizations before September 1, 2020.
Another party, the Bermuda Democratic Party, contested the 1968 election but failed to win any seats and collapsed soon after, eventually to be replaced by the now-defunct National Liberal Party. In addition, several candidates have run as independents, to varying success, or have formed temporary, one-man parties such as the Gombey Liberation Party (or, in its later days, the National Liberal Party).
