Internal Party Democracy (IPD) of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), since Nigeria regained political independence in 1960 from the British until the year 2015, has had a crippling effect on Nigeria's democracy. IPD was responsible as adduced by the military for seizing power from the civilian administration in 1966 and subsequently up to 1999. Following 1999, the IPD of the PDP continued to represent a significant threat to Nigeria's democracy, engaging in everything from deliberate procedural violations of electoral laws to electoral fraud and candidate imposition during the party's primary elections. This qualitative study identified the factors affecting the PDP's IPD. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 13 females and 17 males for the study, comprising officials, elites, and members from the PDP itself, and the parliament. Thematic analysis revealed three major factors affecting PDP’s IPD such as (i) the absence of a free and fair process, (ii) the lack of nomination of women's candidature, and (iii) the discrimination nature of the IPD style. The present study closed the gap in the literature by revealing the exact activities in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly in Nigeria. Hence, the study is a novelty in relation to previous research on PDP's IPD.
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