South Africa

Okay so the floor-crossing period is well under way and the collective squealing of the piggies at the trough has noticeably risen. Lets just get this straight - floorcrossing is a bad idea. In our country we vote for parties and not individuals, this means when we cast our ballot for a party we are emphasising that our personal beliefs are closely aligned with that particular parties philosophy. However, when people see "their" representatives jumping ship to other parties - often in the hopes of securing more lucrative positions - it builds up feelings of cynicism in the entire political process. 

Another ugly side-effect of floorcrossing is that the system of Patronage can be abused by the governing party to attract defectors. Floorcrossing  legislation is only effective when you have a system of Direct Representation where citizens individually choose their representatives in a legislature instead of choosing them collectively in an election.

It has been noted in the Press that "floorcrossing was allowed by the Constutional Court", well that is only half the story. The CC in its judgement only considered the legality of floorcrossing in terms of the two electoral Acts, the Court did NOT consider (and this was stressed) the relative merits and demerits of the legislation.

At the end of the day it is up to us, the electorate to signal politicians that Floorcrossing is unacceptable and something which we find morally repugnant.