Guidelines to Assist National Minority Participation in the Electoral Process • • • • • • • • • Page: 25 Who appoints the body? Who will draw the district lines or boundaries? Who will have the ultimate responsibility for selecting the final redistricting plan? Should the persons who draw the districts be independent from the legislature and be politically neutral? Should the legislature have any formal role at all in the process? Should some mechanism exist for public input into the redistricting process? Should the redistricting criteria be adopted for the line drawers to follow? How often should districts be redrawn and how long should the redistricting process take place? What are the sources of funds of the body? The basic principle in relation to delimitation of electoral districts is that it should be done fairly and should not have the effect of prejudicing the representation of any party or minority grouping. In some cases, electoral districts may be purposely designed and drawn to ensure that minority groupings are represented. Again, this will depend upon the spread of the minority grouping as to whether they are concentrated territorially in a specific geographic area or whether they are spread evenly throughout a large portion of the country. It is a trend in developing countries, as well as in certain established democracies for the demarcation body to be independent from government and to be representative and legitimate in composition and structure. While, as is the case with electoral commissions, many countries in Western Europe locate this responsibility within a government department, there is no doubt that the legitimacy and credibility of the body is considerably enhanced by locating it outside government with separate sources of funding which will thereby ensure its legitimacy and operational independence. In addition, the decisions of the demarcation body should be subject to judicial review, as with all executive decisions. In certain countries this decision rests with the legislature, however, leaving this critical area of decision making purely in the hands of the legislature, needs to be carefully considered. Refugees or displaced persons need to be given careful consideration in terms of their choice of constituency or the external voting provisions relating to them. This should apply to nomadic groupings to ensure that they are represented. The dispensations for the Bedouin people in Jordan provide a good example. Similarly the establishment of a district to enable the election of a representative of the Roma community in district 85, in Shuto Orizam in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which encompasses the largest Roma population in Europe, is a good example. Best practices for boundary delimitation are as follows: • Representativeness. Electoral district boundaries should be drawn such that constituents have an opportunity to elect candidates that they feel truly represent them. This usually means that district boundaries should coincide with communities of interest as much as possible. Communities of interest can be defined in a variety of ways and would include administrative divisions, ethnic or cultural neighbourhoods or natural communities delineated by physical boundaries (such as islands). If districts are not composed of communities of interest, however defined, it may be difficult for a single candidate to represent the entire constituency.