Inter-Party Defection: Does Tanzania Need Anti-Defection Law?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61841/zhrhxp35Keywords:
Inter-Party Defection, Defection, Anti-Defection Law, Game Theory, Politicians, By-election, TanzaniaAbstract
In spite of a manifested increase in the number of legislative representatives who defect from one party to the other in Tanzania, there has been scanty literature to understand why this massive defection taking place now. This research article embarked on filling this gap of knowledge. The authors presented empirical findings obtained in the Tanzanian political context whereby defectors were purposively sampled for in-depth understanding of a phenomenon. A total of thirty (30) key informants from different registered political parties were prudently chosen to participate in the study. The results of this research revealed that there are various political reasons that influence inter-party defection amongst politicians in Tanzania; these include personal interests, intra-party conflict, national interests, and ethnic group interests. Thus, the study recommends to policymakers and other political stakeholders to consider the adoption of an anti-defection law so as to regulate or control unnecessary defection done by sitting legislators or representatives. By doing so, it will help to protect unreasonable utilization of national scanty resources for repeated by-elections.
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