Guidelines to Assist National Minority Participation in the Electoral Process Page: 23 Reserved Seats • Reserved seats are special seats allocated to national minorities. The representatives in these seats are elected by members of the specified minority grouping only. Examples of reserved seat representation are to be found in Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, the Russian Federation Upper Chamber and the ex-officio participation of the Sami people in Finland. The particular form that the special representation of national minorities may take requires detailed consideration of the process, representativity, structure, implementation and maintenance. In the Russian Federation, national minority voters preferred to vote “against all” rather than fill reserved seats with candidates whom they did not feel would represent their interests. • It should be noted that it may be better not to reinforce ethnic differences through reserved seats as that may, in itself, be a potential cause of mistrust and antagonism. Furthermore, in some situations there may be some risk for voters to identify themselves in a separate voter’s roll. The primary objection to the use of reserved seats is that it may perpetuate the identification and division of candidates based on ethnicity and that such labels can result in differentiation and discrimination. • In most cases, special or reserved seats are instituted as short-term mechanisms in transitional situations in order to address the fears and concerns of vulnerable minorities. Experience is however, that these mechanisms do not wither away, but endure as they become part of the electoral landscape of the country. • Other communal devices which explicitly recognise ethnic identity as part of the electoral process include the use of mandated ethnically-mixed candidate lists, as in Lebanon and the use of “best loser” seats for under-represented ethnic minorities, as in Mauritius. Over-representation • The mechanism of over representation of minority groups can also be utilised. This is the case in the United Kingdom, where Scotland and Wales have more MPs in the British House of Commons, than they would be entitled to, if population size alone were the only criteria. VIII. LUND RECOMMENDATION ON ELECTIONS: No. 10 “The geographic boundaries of electoral districts should facilitate the equitable representation of national minorities.” A. CONTENT EXPLANATION In any electoral system, the design of the constituencies will determine the level of representation gained by a national minority. The constituencies can either be drawn to ensure representation, or to ensure that there is limited or even no representation. There are two aspects to the issue of boundaries of electoral districts that may have an effect on the equitable representation of minorities. These are: • • district magnitude; territorial delimitation.