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21. General principles guiding the drawing of constituency boundaries include community of interest, convenience, natural boundaries, existing administrative boundaries and population distribution, including minority groups. There should be no scope for any “gerrymandering”, and each vote should, to
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Countries delimit electoral districts in different ways. Sometimes these are drawn based on traditional boundaries, sometimes based on the physical characteristics of the region and, often, the lines are drawn based on the social, political and cultural contexts of the area. This may need to be done
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22. It is important that the general public play a part in the whole process and that the political parties also have an opportunity to respond to proposals before they are finalized. Where the size of a particular constituency is markedly out of line with the target “quota” of voters per seat, the
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ii. It entails a clear and balanced distribution of seats among constituencies on the basis of one of the following allocation criteria: population, number of resident nationals (including minors), number of registered voters, and possibly the number of people actually voting. An appropriate
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iv. The permissible departure from the norm should not be more than 10%, and should certainly not exceed 15% except in special circumstances (protection of a concentrated minority, sparsely populated administrative
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countries. This is called redistricting or redistribution respectively. In these countries non-partisan commissions may draw new district boundaries based on the distribution of population according to a
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20. The delimitation of constituency boundaries is a function occasionally performed by an election commission or otherwise by an independent boundaries commission, and in some cases after a population
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be conducted on the basis of clearly identified criteria such as population, distribution, community of interest, convenience, geographical features and other natural or administrative boundaries;
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vi. With multimember constituencies, seats should preferably be redistributed without redefining constituency boundaries, which should, where possible, coincide with administrative boundaries.
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the extent possible, be afforded equal value or weight, in recognition of the democratic principle that all those of voting age participate equally in the ballot.
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v. In order to guarantee equal voting power, the distribution of seats must be reviewed at least every ten years, preferably outside election periods.
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These processes of boundary delimitation can have a variety of legal justifications. Often, because of the powerful effects this process can have on
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European
Commission for Democracy Through Law: Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, Guidelines and Explanatory Reports adopted October 2002
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be managed by an independent and impartial body that is representative of society, comprising persons with the appropriate skills;
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iii. The geographical criterion and administrative, or possibly even historical, boundaries may be taken into consideration.
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vii. When constituency boundaries are redefined—which they must be in a single-member system—it must be done:
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be devoid of manipulation of electoral boundaries to favour political groups or political interests;
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reasons should be capable of being readily understood by both the parties and the general public.
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International
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2.2 Equal voting power: seats must be evenly distributed between the constituencies.
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Drawing the boundaries of states, precincts, counties, districts, etc. over territory
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Challenging the Norms and
Standards of Election Administration Boundary Delimitation
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The respective roles of the legislature, judiciary and executive in the process;and
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26:"Boundary delimitation" redirects here. For the concept in international law, see
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Boundary delimitation, districting or defining boundaries of electoral units
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The ultimate authority for the final determination of the electoral units.
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Web
Archives ACE: The Electoral Knowledge Center. Accessed July 09, 2008.
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identifies the following practices as necessary for proper delimitation:
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Institute for
Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Accessed July 21, 2009
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Good
Commonwealth Electoral Practices: A Working Document, June 1997,
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in any form of electoral system even though it is primarily done for
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financial and administrative consequences of boundary determination
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financial viability and administrative capacity of electoral area
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be made accessible to the public through a consultation process;
19:"Delimitation" redirects here. For the computing concept, see
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include all spheres of government, both national and local.
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Delimitation is regularly used in the United States and
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A number of international organizations including the
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Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe
494:The degree of public participation in the process;
482:Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
587:combination of these criteria may be envisaged.
661:International Foundation for Electoral Systems
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846:UN database of Maritime delimitation treaties
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696:Also, she suggests that the process should:
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731:South African Municipal Demarcation Board
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773:Overview of Boundary Delimitation
726:Delimitation Commission of India
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564:As part of its report,
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291:Next general elections
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175:Boundary delimitation
871:Partition (politics)
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689:existing boundaries
677:geographic features
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369:Politics portal
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866:International law
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