Cross-Carpeting in the National Assembly and its Implications on Nigeria’s Democracy

Abstract

Political parties represent a vital element of the contemporary democratic tradition. This is because in the absence of political parties, democratic rule would be practically impossible. In recent times, the country’s political firmament has witnessed large number of political defections at both the National and Sub-National Legislative Assemblies. While party switching is not new, it is also not a crime as the constitutions permits it but with conditions. However, the scale and intentional timing of recent defections particularly within the legislature, which is the core of any democratic society, raise worries about the future of the country’s democracy. This policy brief investigates the threat posed by legislative defections in Nigeria, with a view to examining its implication on the two-third legislative voting requirement. To address the democratic implications of cross carpeting in the National Assembly, the following recommendations are proffered: i. The National Assembly may amend section 68(1) of the Constitution by inserting sub-clause (i) to read as follows: “(i): any defecting legislator, based on clause (1)(g) of this section, shall provide evidence of having exhausted all conflict resolution mechanisms within his/her party to the Senate President or the Speaker, as the case may be.” ii. Section 68(2) may also be amended to read: “68(2): an elected legislator who defects to another political party without satisfying the provisions of section 68(1)(i) above automatically loses his/her seat and the senate president or speaker of the House of Representative as the case may be, shall notify the Independent National Electoral Commission by writing, informing the Commission of the vacancy. The Independent National Electoral Commission shall, by that notice, also notify the political party that sponsored the defected legislator to submit the name of the first runner up during the party’s primary election to fill in the vacant seat”. This will save cost of having to conduct another election.