Delimitation Equity Project Resource Guide - IFES

Delimitation Equity Project
A handful of countries offer more explicit instructions as to what communities of interest
are particularly pertinent when delimiting constituencies. In Hungary, for example, the
boundary authority is to take account of ethnic, religious, historical, and other local
characteristics when creating electoral districts. Panama and Ukraine also require
consideration of minority populations: in Ukraine, the “density of national minority
populations” is to be taken into account; in Panama, “concentrations of indigenous
populations” must be considered. Minus electoral law provisions specifically designed to
promote minority representation, however, criteria requiring “due consideration” of the
minority population is likely to have little impact on integrating the halls of government
with minority representatives.
Special Provisions for Minority Groups
Electoral systems that rely on single-member constituencies to elect members of
parliament cannot guarantee proportional representation or even some minimal
percentage of seats for racial, ethnic, religious, or other minority groups within the
population. This is particularly true of electoral systems that rely solely on electoral
districts for the election of representatives (i.e., FPTP and AV systems). On the other
hand, List PR and Mixed systems – such as Parallel and MMP systems – can
accommodate requirements for minority representation within the context of the party
lists if so desired.
In districted systems, voters of a specific minority group will find it very difficult to elect
members of their group to legislative office if voting is polarized along majority-minority
lines. Only if separate seats are reserved for this minority group, or if special electoral
districts are drawn for the group, will minority voters succeed in electing minority
representatives. A few countries included in our survey have made such special
provisions to ensure that racial, ethnic, or religious minorities are represented in the
legislature.
Of the 60 countries in our survey that delimited districts, ten indicated that they have
special provisions designed to ensure some minority representation in the parliament.
These countries are Croatia, Fiji, India, Mauritius, New Zealand, Pakistan, the
Palestinian Territories, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and the United States.
Croatia, which has a List PR electoral system with electoral districts that are not typically
redrawn, reserves specific districts for members of the (1) Hungarian, (2) Czech and
Slovak, and (3) Ruthenian and Ukrainian and German and Austrian minorities. In
addition, three seats are specifically reserved for the Serbian minority within the
Republic of Croatia.
In the Block Vote (or Party Block Vote) systems of Mauritius, Singapore, and the
Palestinian Territories, a number of seats are reserved for minorities:
• Singapore – Most members of parliament are elected through a “Party Block
Vote” in multi-member Group Representative Constituencies (GRCs).
Parties contesting a GRC must propose a slate that includes at least one
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