The party was founded in the wake of the deregistration of the
Sarawak National Party (SNAP) in November 2002. Initially named as the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), it was governed by a faction aligned to the then
Chief Minister of Sarawak,
Abdul Taib Mahmud, led by William Mawan Ikom. A leadership crisis between Mawan Ikom and
Tiong King Sing factions led William Mawan Ikom and entire SPDP state assemblymen to leave SPDP in 2013 for newly founded party
TERAS. Tiong King Sing who was then member of Parliament then took control of SPDP. In 2017, the party rebranded as the Progressive Democratic Party, having planned to expand to certain
West Malaysian states, including
Selangor,
Negeri Sembilan and
Johor (where it has established 6 divisions in 2017), although the party remains based and mostly active in Sarawak. It is one of the former component parties of the
Barisan Nasional coalition. In April 2024,
Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) was merged into PDP and its members were accepted into PDP, including 3 state assemblymen.
Electoral history At the
2011 Sarawak state election, PDP won six out of the eight seats it contested. In the
2013 General Election, all 4 of the party's candidates won their respective seats, including William Mawan himself, where he won in
Saratok against
Ali Biju of
PKR. At the
2021 Sarawak state election, PDP won five out of the six seats it contested. == Organisational structure ==