Katana VentraIP

Reserved political positions

Several politico-constitutional arrangements use reserved political positions, especially when endeavoring to ensure the rights of women, minorities or other segments of society, or preserving a political balance of power.

10 seats for the representatives of the .

Kosovo Serbs

4 seats for the representatives of the , Ashkali and Egyptians.

Romani

3 seats for the .

Bosniaks

2 seats for the .

Turks

1 seat for the .

Gorani

Countries formerly applying reserved political positions[edit]

Afghanistan[edit]

During the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the constitution guaranteed at least 64 delegates to be female in the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly ("The elections law shall adopt measures to attain, through the electorate system, general and fair representation for all the people of the country, and proportionate to the population of very province, on average, at least two females shall be the elected members of the House of People from each province."), while Kochi nomads elected 10 representatives through a single national constituency. Moreover, "one third of the members (of the House of Elders) shall be appointed by the President, for a five-year term, from amongst experts and experienced personalities, including two members from amongst the impaired and handicapped, as well as two from nomads. The President shall appoint fifty percent of these individuals from amongst women."[18]

German Democratic Republic[edit]

East Germany reserved seats in the Volkskammer for representatives of women, trade unions and youth organisations.

Greece[edit]

During the 1920s and 1930s there was a system of separate electoral curiae for Muslim and Jewish electors in Greece, with reserved seats.[19]

Palestine (British mandate)[edit]

During the Mandatory Palestine, at the third election (1931) of its Assembly of Representatives, there were three curiae, for the Ashkenazi Jews, the Sephardi Jews and for the Yemeni Jews.[20][21][22][23]

Palestinian Authority[edit]

While the Palestinian Authority makes no reservations within the Palestinian Legislative Council (there were reserved seats for Christians and Samaritans in the electoral law for the 1996 Palestinian general election), certain positions in local government are guaranteed to certain minority groups, in order to retain particular traditional cultural influence and diversity. For example, the mayor of Bethlehem is required to be a Christian, even though the city itself currently has a Muslim majority.

Syria[edit]

Syria enjoyed an electoral system like Lebanon's, at least for the parliamentary elections, up to 1949, when the subdivisions among each religion were suppressed, then there were only reserved seats for Christians up to 1963, when the Ba'athist regime suppressed free elections.[24][25][26]

reserves eight of its 382 parliamentary seats for expatriates, many of whom reside in France.

Algeria

has three overseas seats reserved for expatriates

Cape Verde

reserves one overseas seat to represent all expatriates

Colombia

reserves no more than six seats in parliament for expatriates. The number of seats assigned to emigrants is based on participation rates in the election.

Croatia

has six parliamentary seats for expatriates

Ecuador

reserves 12 seats in the Senate for expatriates, and 11 seats in the National Assembly.

France

reserves seats in its Parliament for Italian expatriates, with twelve members of the Chamber of Deputies and six in the Senate representing an Overseas constituency.

Italy

's Assembly of the Republic has four seats reserved for Portuguese living abroad, two for those living in Europe, the other two for those living in other parts of the world.

Portugal

In , the National Assembly consists of 70 members, 62 elected for a five-year term in a constituency in which 3 are elected in the constituencies of Mauritius (mainland) and 2 are elected in the constituency of Rodriques. From 4 up to 8 additional members, known as "best losers" appointed by the Electoral Supervisory Commission "with a view to correct any imbalance in community representation in Parliament".[27]

Mauritius

reserves a proportion of its parliamentary seats for the representation of persons electing to register on a separate Māori roll. The number of seats depends upon the number of people on the roll — there are currently seven seats. See Māori electorates.

New Zealand

Denmark: party of Schleswig Party

German minority

Germany: and Frisian minorities (in Schleswig-Holstein), Sorbian minority (in Brandenburg) in fact this only applies to the South Schleswig Voters' Association

Danish

Poland:

German minority

Romania:

18 recognized minorities

Serbia

In several countries, political parties representing recognized ethnic minorities are exempted from the election threshold. Examples are listed below.

held its first post-Saddam parliamentary elections in January 2005 under an electoral law providing for compulsory integration of women on the candidates lists, like several European countries with a proportional electoral system.

Iraq

Affirmative action