Editing Social Democratic Party (Laeral) (section)

===Post-Republic Activities===
The SDP faced political headwinds during the nation's first fully-free elections in 1954, at which [[François Guirard]], of the [[Laeralian National Congress]], was elected president with 54% of the vote. The SDP retained its grip on power in the [[National Assembly (Laeral)|National Assembly]], however, winning 154 of 300 seats and electing [[Sun Jia-wei]] as [[Prime Minister of Laeral|prime minister]]. Although Sun Jia-wei was defeated in his bid for president against Gramont in 1958, the party retained its grip on the Assembly of Commons in coalition with the [[Laeralian Communist Party]]. The 1962 presidential election, in which former president [[Réne Gramont]]'s political comeback resulted in a narrow victory, saw the fortunes of the SDP rise, yet a sluggish economy would lead a [[Laeralian National Congress]]-led coalition to take power in the National Assembly following 1964 snap elections. In response, Gramont declared a [[Emergency Period|state of national emergency]], purportedly due to the [[Great War]], resulting in the suspension of the constitution and ended only by Gramont's death of a stroke in 1964. This hugely discredited the party among intellectuals and the middle class by upsetting the party's image as a technocratic steward of the nation. Many influential members of the party opposed to the Emergency, including [[Zhou Wei-lin]], [[Edmond Yeoh]], and [[Matthieu Dallaire]], left the SDP to form the [[Progressive Party of Laeral]], a center-left, Gramontist party, in December 1964. 

Following the Emergency, forces in the Laeralian National Congress party sought to have the Social Democratic Party banned for anti-democratic activity, as permitted by the Laeralian Constitution. The case and repeated appeals before the [[Laeralian Constitutional Court]] persisted for several years, before the court officially voted to ban the SDP in 1968 in a controversial decision. Due to the ban, the SDP's final Party Secretary, [[Ren Jian-kuan]], reformed the party into the [[Republic Party (Laeral)|Republic Party]], its legal successor, which persisted until a poor showing at the 1984 parliamentary election spelled its demise.