Floor crossing and the role of the courts in Malawi and South Africa

• DOI: 10.10520/EJC139808
• Published date: 01 January 2012
• Date: 01 January 2012
• Author: Lia Nijzink
• Pages: 143-161

FLOOR CROSSING AND THE ROLE OF THE

COURTS IN MALAWI AND SOUTH AFRICA1

Lia Nijzink*

ABSTRACT

When Mem bers of Par lia ment take up mem ber ship of a po lit i cal party other

than the party that got them elected, the lines of ver ti cal and hor i zon tal ac -

count abil ity that are the cor ner stones of rep re sen ta tive de moc racy are

af fected. There fore, many coun tries in sub-Sa ha ran Af rica have ex plic itly

pro hib ited or re stricted floor cross ing in their con sti tu tions. This ar ti cle look s

at two coun tries in which the con sti tu tional pro vi sions re gard ing floor cross -

ing and their im ple men ta tion have been brought be fore the high est courts:

Ma lawi and South Af rica. Else where, I have made this com par i son with the

aim of draw ing con clu sions about how floor cross ing af fects ver ti cal ac -

count abil ity – the re la tion ship be tween the elec tor ate and elected

rep re sen ta tives. In this ar ti cle, I will fo cus on hor i zon tal ac count abil ity and

dis cuss the de ci sions of the courts on floor cross ing in both coun tries. Af ter

com par ing the le gal frame work of floor cross ing in South Af rica and Ma -

lawi, the role of the courts is dis cussed and a num ber of in ter est ing

sim i lar i ties and dif fer ences be tween the two coun tries are iden ti fied. This

dis cus sion high lights the of ten dif fi cult po si tion of the courts in dis putes of a

po lit i cal na ture and draw s our at ten tion to the in ef fec tive ness of con sti tu -

tional pro vi sions on floor cross ing.

IINTRODUCTION

Floor cross ing is a con tro ver sial and highly top i cal is sue not only in Ma -

lawi and South Af rica, but also in many other young de moc ra cies on the

con ti nent. Be cause Af ri can pol i tics tends to be lead er ship-cen tred and

FLOOR CROSSING AND THE ROLE OF THE COURTS 143

LLM (Maastricht), MA (Am ster dam), for merly Se nior Re searcher, Uni ver sity of Cape Town.

*

1Parts of this ar ti cle are in cluded in and/or adapted from L Nijzink ‘Ac count abil ity com pro mised:

Floor cross ing in Ma lawi and South Af rica’ in D Chirwa & L Nijzink (eds) Ac count able gov ern -

ment in Af rica: Per spec tives from pub lic law and po lit i cal stud ies (Cape To wn: UCT Press, 2012)

178–199.

pa tron age-based2 rather than ideo log i cally ori en tated and be cause party or -

gani sa tions are gen er ally weak,3 the pri mary loy alty of Mem bers of

Par lia ment (‘MPs’) does not nec es sar ily lie with the party un der whose flag

they got elected. Fur ther more, be cause MPs of ten fi nance their own elec tion

cam paigns and are un der pres sure to re gard ser vice de liv ery to their con stit -

u ency as their main task,4 loy alty to their party is not nec es sar ily their top

pri or ity. This is not to say that MPs in Af ri can de moc ra cies are de fect ing

from their po lit i cal par ties en masse. In fact, many coun tries in sub-Sa ha ran

Af rica have ex plic itly pro hib ited or re stricted floor cross ing in their con sti tu -

tions.5 How ever, these floor-cross ing pro vi sions of ten have to be

im ple mented in sit u a tions where party bound aries are blurred and fluid,

where pol i ti cians face in cen tives that en cour age de fec tions, or where a cul -

ture of re spect for con sti tu tional rules is not strong. Thus, the is sue of floor

cross ing raises in ter est ing ques tions about con sti tu tional im ple men ta tion.

This ar ti cle looks at two coun tries in which the con sti tu tional pro vi -

sions re gard ing floor cross ing and their im ple men ta tion have been brought

be fore the high est court: Ma lawi and South Af rica. This com par i son is in ter -

est ing for a num ber of rea sons. First, in Ma lawi, floor cross ing is

con sti tu tion ally re stricted, while the South Af ri can Con sti tu tion ex plic itly

al lowed elected rep re sen ta tives to cross the floor. Sec ond, Ma lawi has a

first-past-the-post elec toral sys tem (‘FPTP’), while South Af rica uses a sys -

tem of pro por tional rep re sen ta tion (‘PR’) based on party lists. Lastly, in

Ma lawi, floor cross ing oc curs in the con text of a frag mented party sys tem

144 (2012) MLJ VOL.6, ISSUE 2

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Ran dom thoughts on neo-patrimonialism and Af ri can de moc ra ti sa tion’ in M Basedau, G

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Magolowondo ‘De moc racy within po lit i cal par ties: The state of af fairs in East and South ern Af -

rica’ in D Chirwa & L Nijzink (eds) Ac count able gov ern ment in Af rica: Per spec tives from pub lic law

and po lit i cal stud ies (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2012) 200–215.

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5For ex am ple, Namibia, Zam bia, Zim ba bwe. In Ken ya, like in Ma lawi, de fec tions are per mit ted

but trig ger by-elec tions.