In an attempt to move away from the one-party system, the National Assembly of Senegal adopted a law on July 9, 1975, which would give way to a three party system. The law identified that three distinct ideological tendencies would be represented in the political life of the country: liberal and democratic, socialist and democratic and Marxist-Leninist. The governing UPS was accorded the role as the Social Democratic party and the main opposition PDS was legalized to take the role as the liberal democratic party.