Information on the delimitation practices of 87 countries (or territories) was assembled and summarized for the Delimitation Equity Project conducted by IFES from 2004-2005.
Data was collected through a variety of means:
(1) the compilation of constitutional and election law provisions on constituency delimitation;
(2) information gathered during a series of election missions undertaken by the author on behalf of IFES and other organizations; and
(3) three surveys conducted over the last few years:
- A delimitation survey sent to election administrations around the world in the fall of 2004.
- Comparative Data section of the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, which includes a series of questions on delimitation practices.
- A comparative redistricting project that included a conference, a survey, and a series of case studies, funded in large part by the National Science Foundation. (The Comparative Redistricting Project, which included a conference entitled "Redistricting from a Comparative Perspective" held December 7-9, 2001, was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine.)
Countries that Delimit Electoral Districts
The 87 countries (or territories) for which information was collected represent a broad geographic array: 21 of the countries are located in the Americas, 34 in Europe, 15 in Africa, 2 in the Middle East, 11 in Asia and 4 in Oceania (Australia/South Pacific Islands).
Of these 87 countries, 60 (69 percent of the total number of countries) reported delimiting electoral districts. The breakdown by region of the countries that delimit electoral districts is as follows:
|
Region
|
Percent of Countries that Delimit Constituencies
|
Total Number of Countries
|
|
Americas
|
57%
|
21
|
|
Europe
|
62%
|
34
|
|
Africa
|
73%
|
15
|
|
Middle East
|
100%
|
2
|
|
Asia
|
91%
|
11
|
|
Oceania
|
100%
|
4
|
|
TOTAL
|
69%
|
87
|
The majority of countries in every region represented in the survey delimited electoral districts. Countries in the Americas were the least likely to have specifically delimited electoral districts: although every country in North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States) and most countries in the Caribbean delimit constituencies, very few in Central and South America do so. Countries in Oceania – Australia, New Zealand, and most of the South Pacific Island countries – are the most likely to have specifically delimited electoral districts.
Almost without exception, the countries that do not specifically delimit districts are countries that have List Proportional Representation (List PR) electoral systems (Georgia and Panama are the only countries surveyed that do not have a List Proportional Representation electoral system and do not periodically delimit electoral districts). Every other type of electoral system included in this study requires some delimitation of electoral districts: First Past the Post (FPTP) Systems, Two Round Systems (TRS), Alternative Vote (AV) and Block Vote (BV) Systems, and Parallel and Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) Systems.
