Guidelines to Assist National Minority Participation in the Electoral Process Page: 17 in particular areas.24 This is a highly sensitive and delicate matter which should not require declarations of affiliation which may be used in a subsequently discriminatory manner.25 If a national minority is given a special entitlement to elect minority representatives to a legislative body, it is imperative that this “minority vote” should be in addition to, rather than an alternative to, the ordinary right to elect representatives. Accordingly, if it is considered necessary for an electoral system to allow voters belonging to a national minority to have a special vote, those voters should be entitled to vote in both. In the Croatian Parliamentary elections (Lower House), members of National minorities may choose to vote for a general national list, but may also vote for specific minority lists. (The Hungarian, Serbian and Italian minorities have one seat each, while minorities with small numbers of members are grouped together to elect one deputy among them.) The reason is that it is wrong to assume that members of ethnic or other communities will automatically vote along such lines. Parties should, where possible, be encouraged to include minority representatives in their parties, which will, in turn, ensure greater representation and contribute to curtailing ethnic mobilisation. It should not always be assumed that national minorities want to participate in government. In this respect there may be circumstances which have led them to conclude that it may not be in their interests to adopt a certain political profile. Notwithstanding this, there should be no impediment to their participation should they choose to do so. B. LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK AND OPTIONS In this general principle of the Lund Recommendations, four options are detailed. Each is a mechanism that may, depending on the circumstances, facilitate and encourage minority representation and influence in legislatures. They are: • • • • the use of single member districts a system of proportional representation the use of preference voting the establishment of lower numerical thresholds for representation Each option is elaborated below. Neither the options nor these guidelines are exhaustive. Option 1: Where minorities are concentrated territorially, single member districts may provide sufficient minority representation Many electoral systems are based on representatives elected from defined single-member districts – called a single member system. There are two variants: • 24 25 26 a plurality system such as first-past-the-post. This system grants victory to the highest polling candidate even if the candidate does not enjoy majority support.26 On the complex and sensitive issues of data collection and census, see the contributions to the International Association of Statisticians' Conference “Statistics, Development and Human Rights” held in Montreux, Switzerland, on 4-8 September 2000, in particular, the 6 September session on minorities (publication forthcoming); most of the papers are available on the Conference web-site at www.iaos2000.admin.ch.. Many minorities (inter alia, Jews and Roma) have had severe experiences as a result of such ascription in the past. Accordingly if there are five candidates, it is theoretically possible that a candidate with only 21% of the vote may be declared the winner.