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Party switching is any change in political party affiliation of a partisan public figure, usually one currently holding elected office.
Party switching occurs quite commonly in Brazil, [1] Italy, Romania, Ukraine [ citation needed ], and the Philippines.
It is rare in Australia for a member of a major party to switch to another political party, especially another to major party. It is more common for a member of parliament to become an independent or form their own minor political party. Notable individual party switchers at federal level include:
Mass defections took place on several occasions in the 20th century due to Australian Labor Party (ALP) splits – in 1916 (to the National Labor Party, including the sitting prime minister Billy Hughes), in 1931 (to Lang Labor), in 1940 (to the Non-Communist Labor Party), and in 1955 (to the Anti-Communist Labor Party).
During the 2024 Tasmanian state election Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff announced an intention to amend the Tasmanian Consitution to add a clause that would legislate that if an MP left the party on which they were elected, they would vacate their seat of parliament. [2] [3] [4] This would make Tasmania the only state with such a clause.
In India before 1985, switching party is more frequent rather than common with nearly everyday some legislator switches loyalties and political parties.
Aaya Ram Gaya Ram (English: Ram has come, Ram has gone) expression in politics of India means the frequent floor-crossing, turncoating, switching parties and political horse trading in the legislature by the elected politicians and political parties. The term originated in 1967 in Haryana where excessive political horse trading, counter horse trading and counter-counter horse trading took place; triggering several rounds of frequent political defections by the serial-turncoat politicians within a span of few weeks; resulting in the dissolution of the Haryana Legislative Assembly and consequently the fresh elections were held in 1968. It became the subject of numerous jokes and cartoons. After 1967, several parties in India often continued to be involved in this type of political horse-trading to grab the power.
To end this trend, the anti-defection law was made in 1985. The trend still continues to surface every now and then, by exploiting the loopholes in existing anti-defection laws to benefit a specific party through further horse-trading, counter-defections, formation of unholy alliances and electoral fraud. This misuse, by the collusion of corrupt politicians/parties with the partisan Speaker and/or Governor, can be somewhat prevented by the political opponents (losing side in the political intrigue) by going to the court for immediate intervention.
The term was coined when Gaya Lal, a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Hodal in Haryana, won elections as an independent candidate in 1967 and joined the Indian National Congress, and thereafter he changed parties thrice in a fortnight, first by politically defecting from the Indian National Congress to the United Front, then counter defecting back to INC, and then counter-counter-defected within nine hours to United Front again. When Gaya Lal quit the United Front and join the INC, then INC leader Rao Birendra Singh who had engineered Gaya Lal's defection to INC, brought Gaya Lal to a press conference at Chandigarh and declared "Gaya Ram was now Aya Ram". This triggered the worst cyclic game of the political defections, the counter-defections, the counter-counter-defections, and so on, eventually resulting in the dissolution of the Haryana Legislative Assembly and the President's rule was imposed.
1985 Anti-defection Act was passed in 1985 to prevent such defections. It was included in constitution by Rajiv Gandhi government as the tenth schedule of Indian constitution.
The Anti-defection Act, applicable to both Parliament and state assemblies, specifies the process for the Presiding Officer of a legislature (Speaker) to disqualify a legislators on grounds of defection based on a petition by any other member of the House. Defection is defined as either voluntarily giving up the membership of his party or disobeying (abstaining or voting against) the directives (political whip) of the party leadership on a vote in legislature. Legislators can change their party without the risk of disqualification to merge with or into another party provided that at least two-thirds of the legislators are in favour of the merger, neither the members who decide to merge, nor the ones who stay with the original party will face disqualification. The Supreme Court mandated that in the absence of a formal resignation, the giving up of membership can be determined by the conduct of a legislator, such as publicly expressing opposition to their party or support for another party, engaging in anti-party activities, criticizing the party on public forums on multiple occasions, and attending rallies organised by opposition parties. The Presiding Officer has no time limit to make his decision, for example if less than two third legislators of party defect then the Presiding Officer can use his discretion to either disqualify the legislators before a vote of no confidence is held or delay the decision on disqualification until after the "vote of no confidence" is held. In another example, if less than two third legislators of party defect together in more than one batch in such a way that the combined strength of the united defectors is more than two third before the decision on the defection is made, the Presiding Officer can use his discretion to either disqualify each batch of the defecting legislators or accept the combined batches of the defectors as the legal defection (no disqualification). This allows a possibility of the misuse by the Presiding Officer to benefit a specific party through further horse-trading (counter-defections), formation of unholy alliances or electoral fraud by exploiting the loopholes in the existing anti-defection laws. However, the decision of the Presiding Officer is subject to the judicial review by courts.
In Italy, party-switching is more common than in other Western European parliamentary democracies, with nearly 25% of members of the Italian Chamber of Deputies switching parties at least once during the 1996 to 2001 legislative term. [5] A 2004 article in the Journal of Politics posited that party-switching in Italy "most likely is motivated by party labels that provide little information about policy goals and that pit copartisans against each other in the effort to serve constituent needs." [5]
Party switching has been a serious issue in Malaysian politics, and it has been one of the main reasons for the fall of two federal governments and several state governments during the political crisis. On 28 July 2022, in Malaysia, the Constitution (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) 2022 regarding the provision prohibiting members of the Dewan Rakyat from jumping parties was approved by a two-thirds majority vote of the members of the Dewan Rakyat. Thus, Malaysia is also one of the countries that prohibit 'party hopping' or 'party cheating'. [6] Similar law has also been passed by 9 of 13 state legislatures including Sabah and Sarawak. [7]
Party switching in New Zealand gained currency during the end of the 1980s, and even more so in the late 1990s after mixed-member proportional representation was implemented. In particular, the phrase "waka-jumping" entered the public consciousness in 1998 when then-Prime Minister Jenny Shipley expelled the New Zealand First party from the ruling coalition government, and several New Zealand First MPs resigned from the party and stayed loyal to the government.[ citation needed ] In response to these defections, the Electoral Integrity Act was passed in 2001, which later expired in 2005. A proposal to replace the Act failed in 2005 [8] but was successful in 2018. [9] [10] A private members' bill to repeal the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act 2018 was considered in 2020 but was defeated in June 2021. [11]
In Nicaragua, some major party switches occurred between 2002 and 2006 when the two major political parties, the Constitutional Liberal Party and the Sandinista National Liberation Front, formed a pact and members of both parties left to form new parties or make alliances with smaller ones.
Party-switching "has become the norm, the practice" in the Philippines, according to Julio Teehankee, a political science professor at De La Salle University. During midterm elections, politicians usually attach themselves to the party of the ruling president. This has led to transactional dealings, and parties are identified more on personalities instead of platforms. Aside from party-switching, internal squabbles within parties lead to the formation of new ones. Vice President Jejomar Binay, elected under PDP–Laban, formed his own United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) as his party for his 2016 presidential campaign. Ex-Lakas members who do not want to join the then-ruling Liberal Party in 2013 joined together to form the National Unity Party. [12]
These are presidents who have been members of another party but switched to a different party or founded a new one to run for president:
Several more examples can be seen in lower positions.
In the Russian Federation, party switching is considered illegal in the State Duma and is highly frowned upon. After major party switches during the Boris Yeltsin Presidency, party switching was declared illegal in the State Duma, and can result in a forced resignation of the State Duma representative by the chairman of their ex-political party. However, members of the State Duma considered an independent politician may be permitted to join and switch to a party at any time. They may not switch after that. After a forced resignation, the State Duma representative can run again in future elections, as their new party's whip. The chairman of the political party can choose to replace the party switcher with whomever they choose. Party merging, however, is not illegal and can be seen when a big amount of political parties merged into United Russia, the current ruling party of Russia.
Party switching is not unusual in Turkey, but Kubilay Uygun is known for his repeated switching during his single term in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (1995 – 1999). He resigned from his party seven times and served four different parties, finishing as an independent.
In Ukraine, the imperative mandate provision of the Ukrainian Constitution banned party switching in Parliament from 2004 to 2010. The mandate stipulated that the constitution and laws of Ukraine obliged members of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament, to remain members of the parliamentary faction or bloc in which they were elected. [13]
This was evident during the 2007 Ukrainian political crisis where members of the opposition crossed party lines with plans to undermine Presidential authority and move towards the 300 constitutional majority. [14]
On 21 February 2014, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law that reinstated the 2004 imperative mandate. [15] [16] [17] In practice, the imperative mandate causes the deprivation of the mandate of deputies who leave their faction by their own initiative while deputies who are removed from their faction become independent MPs. [18] [19] [20] [21]
Party-switching in the United States Congress (for example, from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, or vice versa) is relatively rare. During the period between 1947 and 1997, only 20 members of the House of Representatives and Senate switched parties. [5] Periods with a high degree of party switching (among both elected officials and citizens) are linked to periods of partisan realignment. [22] [23]
After the 1994 elections (in which Republicans gained control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in four decades), five House Democrats and two Senate Democrats switched to the Republican Party. [22] Another notable switch took place in 2001 when Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become a political independent, which placed the Senate in Democratic control. [24] Another notable example is when in April 2009, Arlen Specter, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, switched to the Democratic Party. This provided Democrats with a brief 3/5 majority in the Senate, which helped enable the Affordable Care Act to pass the Senate.
Lakas–Christian Muslim Democrats, abbreviated as Lakas–CMD and popularly known as Lakas, was a political party in the Philippines. Its ideology and that of its successor is heavily influenced by Christian and Islamic democracy. The party's influence on Philippine society is very strong, especially after the People Power Revolution, which has led the country to elect two presidents from the party, namely Fidel V. Ramos, a United Methodist, and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a Roman Catholic.
The Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) is a conservative political party in the Philippines which was founded in 1992 by presidential candidate Danding Cojuangco.
The 1992 election of members to the Senate of the Philippines was the 24th election to the Senate of the Philippines. It was held on Monday, May 11, 1992. This was the first general election under the 1987 Philippine Constitution. An estimated 80,000 candidates ran for 17,000 posts, from the presidency all the way down to municipal councilors.
The Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan sa Kinabukasan is the political multi-party electoral alliance that supported president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who won 2004 Philippine presidential election. It is the remnant of the People Power Coalition that was formed following the ascendancy of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to power. Arroyo is seeking a complete term under this coalition with Sen. Noli de Castro, an independent, yet popular, politician, as her running mate.
The People's Reform Party (Philippines) (abbrev. PRP) is a political party in the Philippines. Founded on April 12, 1991, as the political party of former Agrarian Reform Secretary Miriam Defensor Santiago for her bid as president in the 1992 Presidential Elections. During the 1992 Elections, the party nominated Santiago as president and Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. as vice president, however both Santiago and Magsaysay lost the elections to former Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos and then-Senator Joseph Estrada, respectively. The Force of Reform Philippines (FORPH) serves as the official youth-wing of the People's Reform Party. While under the same Miriam Defensor Santiago wing, the Youth Reform Movement is not related to the PRP.
The 2010 Philippine presidential and vice presidential elections were held on Monday, May 10, 2010. The ruling President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was ineligible to seek re-election as per the 1987 Constitution, thus necessitating an election to select the 15th President.
Lakas–Christian Muslim Democrats, abbreviated as Lakas–CMD and also known simply as Lakas, is a political party in the Philippines. Lakas–CMD is considered to sit on the centre-right of the political spectrum and is influenced by Christian democracy and Islamic democracy. Since the 2022 elections, Lakas–CMD is currently the biggest party in the House of Representatives, with the party's president, Martin Romualdez, serving as Speaker of the House. The party is a dominant member of the UniTeam Alliance led by President Bongbong Marcos.
Local elections were held in the Manila on May 10, 2010, within the Philippine general election. The voters will elect for the elective local posts in the city: the mayor, vice mayor, the six Congressmen, and the councilors, six in each of the city's six legislative districts.
The 2010 Philippine House of Representatives elections were held on May 10, 2010, to elect members to the House of Representatives of the Philippines to serve in the 15th Congress of the Philippines from June 30, 2010, to June 30, 2013. The Philippines uses parallel voting for seats in the House of Representatives; a voter has two votes: one for a representative from one's legislative district, and another for a sectoral representative via closed lists under the party-list system, with a 2% election threshold and 3-seat cap, when the parties with 2% of the national vote or more not meeting the 20% of the total seats, parties with less than 2% of the vote will get one seat each until the 20% requirement is met.
Local elections were held in the province of Marinduque on May 10, 2010, as part of the 2010 general election. Voters selected candidates for all local positions: a town mayor, vice mayor and town councilors, as well as four members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, the vice-governor, governor and representative for the lone district of Marinduque.
Elections were held in the Ilocos Region for seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines on May 10, 2010.
Elections were held in the National Capital Region (Metro Manila) for seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines on May 10, 2010.
Elections were held in Central Visayas for seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines on May 10, 2010.
Local elections were held in Makati on May 10, 2010, within the Philippine general election. The voters will elect for the elective local posts in the city: the mayor, vice mayor, two District representatives, and councilors, eight in each of the city's two legislative districts.
Local elections were held in the province of Cebu on May 10, 2010 within the Philippine general election. The voters elected a mayor, vice mayor, nine district representatives (including two from Cebu City and the newly formed lone district of Lapu-Lapu City, and town and city councilors as well as two provincial board members came from six provincial districts.
The Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI), formerly known as the Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino, was a political party in the Philippines. It is the main party of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In June 2008, Kampi merged into the Lakas–CMD.
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Local elections will be held in the city of Dasmariñas on May 13, 2013 together with the National and the provincial level elections. Since Dasmariñas is a first class city in terms of income and the 2nd largest city in southern Luzon in terms of population, however it still an ordinary component city, it means it still elect a provincial official, despite its own representation in the congress.