Defections In Political Parties and Its Implications for Stability of Democracy

In the majority of democracies, political party defections have been a frequent occurrence. This might be because people and their societies are dynamic. While there is no denying that democracies are becoming more and more popular around the world, their sustainability is a cause for concern. Defection of members, which most frequently occurs on the eve of elections, has been named as one of the risks to democracy. This lends support to the claim that politicians’ affiliation with political parties is motivated more by self-interest than by ideological principles. This essay aims to examine the problem of party desertion and how it affects the stability of democracy.  In order to accomplish this, the research adopts the doctrinal research methodology, which takes into account the Nigerian legal frameworks regarding the right of members of political parties to defect from one political party to the other as well as the consequences to the office of the defector under the law. The case law in which judicial pronouncements were made by the judex in the cause of interpreting constitutional or statutory provisions governing political party desertion were also considered at and analyzed.