The Arab Socialist Union Party of Syria ( Hizb Al-Ittihad Al-Ishtiraki Al-'Arabi fi Suriyah) (ASU) is a Nasserist political party in Syria. ASU was led by Safwan al-Qudsi. The party was formed in 1973, following a split from the original ASU. At the last legislative elections, 2007, the ASU was part of the National Progressive Front (Al-Jabhat Al-Wataniah Al-Taqaddumiyyah). the ASU was awarded 8 out of the 250 seats. The NPF is led by the Ba'ath Party. History Background: Arab Socialism in Syria Non-Nasserite Arab socialism in Syria has its origins in the Arab Socialist Party (ASP; also ASM, for Arab Socialist Movement). This party grew out of Syria's Hizb al-Shabab (Youth Party). In 1950, Akram al-Hawrani took over leadership of the party and changed its name to the Arab Socialist Party. After initial successes, the ASP was banned by Syria's de facto leader, Adib ash-Shishakli, in 1952, as he considered it to be too powerful a political rival. Akram al-Hawrani went into exile in Lebanon, and there agreed on a merger with a nationalist and pan-Arabist opposition party, the Arab Ba'ath Party. The new party was called the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. In 1959, the Syrian section of the Baath Party dissolved to leave room for the National Union, which was the only legal party within the United Arab Republic (a Syria-Egypt merger under Gamal Abdel Nasser's leadership). However, dissent over the union grew, and another conference, a year later, reversed the party's decision. When the UAR dissolved in 1961, the Baath Party struggled to reform its Syrian branch, but several groups broke away, including a Nasserist and pro-unionist tendency (which formed the Socialist Unionists, (SU)) and a strongly anti-Nasserist current under Akram al-Hawrani, who recreated his former ASP. Meanwhile, several other Nasserite and pro-Egyptian factions worked in opposition to the "separatist" government and demanded renewed union with Egypt. Formation as opposition In 1964, these Syrian Nasserist parties and organizations (including the SUP, the Movement of Arab Nationalists, the United Arab Front and the Socialist Union) created a Syrian branch of the Egyptian-led Arab Socialist Union, which—after a Nasserite coup attempt in the Spring of 1963—was in militant opposition to Syria's Baath-led government. The organization was led by exiles in Cairo, and remained weakly organized in Syria despite considerable popular support, due to restrictions imposed by the Baathists. It quickly fragmented, with a faction of the former SU under