2001 as Minister of Construction. Joseph Kignoumbi Kia Mboungou was the UPADS presidential candidate in the presidential election held on 10 March 2002; he took second place but received only 2.76% of the vote, with Sassou Nguesso winning by an overwhelming margin according to official results. In the parliamentary election held on 26 May and 23 June 2002, UPADS won two out of 137 seats. The party's first extraordinary congress was held on 27–28 December 2006, with 954 delegates. On this occasion Pascal Tsaty-Mabiala was elected as the Secretary-General of the party, succeeding Christophe Moukouéké. Also elected at the congress were a 601-member National Council, a 135-member Political Bureau, and 25 Vice-Presidents; the Vice-Presidents included major figures in the party such as Joseph Kignoumbi Kia Mboungou, Alphonse Poaty-Souchlaty, Ange Edouard Poungui, Clément Mouamba, Jean Itadi, and Mireille Lissouba. Despite being in the opposition, UPADS chose to participate in the June 2007 parliamentary election, which was boycotted by many other opposition groups. The party put forward about 50 candidates. The party received three seats out the 46 declared in the first round. Tsaty-Mabiala said that the party would only participate in the second round of the election in July if the electoral rolls were improved, voter registration cards were properly distributed, and the composition of the electoral commissions was changed. He also said that the second round should be delayed to allow time for these things to be done. The election was delayed by two weeks. In results announced after the second round, the party had a total of 10 seats in the National Assembly. Tsaty-Mabiala denounced the results as fraudulent on 11 August and said that the election was neither transparent nor fair. He alleged that five UPADS candidates, in Mossendjo, Moutamba, Nkayi, Mabombo and Dolisie electoral districts, had won but were deprived of victory in the results. The party appealed to the Constitutional Court. Ibovi subsequently announced a correction in the results for one of the electoral districts UPADS claimed to have won, Mabombo (in Bouenza Region), which had gone to Marcel Kalla in the previous results, but which Ibovi said was actually won by the UPADS candidate, Christophe Moukouéké. This raised the number of UPADS seats to 11. In early October 2007, Tsaty-Mabiala said that UPADS would not participate in any national unity government because there had not been an agreement on resolving the country's problems. At a