Several politico-constitutional arrangements use reserved political positions, especially when endeavoring to ensure the rights of minorities or preserving a political balance of power. These arrangements can distort the democratic principle of one man - one vote in order to address special circumstances.
The Constitution of Afghanistan guarantees 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 Kuchi nomads elect 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.".[1]
The Argentine Constitution requires for a 30% quota for female candidates for Congress.
30 seats out of 330 in the Parliament are reserved for women.
The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium includes 17 reserved seats for the Flemish minority, on a total of 89, but there are no separate electorates. All seats in the Belgian Senate (except those for the throne heirs) are allocated to the three linguistic communities: 41 for the Dutch language group, 29 for the French language group, plus one German-speaking Community Senator.[2]
Croatia reserves eight seats from the minorities and five for citizens living abroad in its parliament. There are three seats for Serbs, one for Italians, and a few more for other ethnic groups, where a single representative represents more than one group (e.g. there's only one representative for both Czechs and Slovaks).[3]
The Republic of Cyprus is full of reserved political positions. Due to its nature of bi-communal republic, certain posts are always appropriated among Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. For example, the president is chosen from the Greek Cypriot community by using separate electoral rolls, whereas the vice president is chosen by the Turkish Cypriot community, using their own separate electoral rolls. Similarly 70% of the parliament are chosen from Greek Cypriots whereas 30% are chosen by the from Turkish Cypriots. In the Supreme Court, there should be one Greek, One Turkish and one neutral foreign judge.
10 seats out of 105 seats in Parliament are reserved for women.
East Germany reserved seats in the Volkskammer for representatives of women, trade unions and youth organisations.
During the 1920s-1930s there was a system of separate electoral curiae for Muslim and Jewish electors in Greece, with reserved seats.[4]
Fiji provides for the election of specific numbers of Members of Parliament on the basis of three racially-defined constituencies: the indigenous Fijians, the Fijian Indians and the "General" electorate.
India has its 15% of seats in the Parliament of the country, State Assemblies, Local Municipal Bodies and Village level institutions reserved for untouchable castes, also called Dalits or Scheduled Castes. Similarly 7.5% are reserved for tribes or the aborigines. The election of Untouchables and Tribes candidates is by a Joint or mixed electorate , which includes all religions voters like Hindu, Muslim etc and all castes including Untouchables and tribes, vote. This is different from separate electorate practiced in other countries. Two Indian states, Kerala and Bihar, have parliamentary reserved seats for the Anglo-Indian community.
Iran reserves a fixed number of seats in the Majlis for certain recognized non-Muslim ethnoreligious groups. To wit, two seats are reserved for the Christian Armenian community, and one seat each is reserved for the Assyrian and Chaldean Catholic, Jewish, and Zoroastrian communities.
Jordan has reserved seats for Christians, Circassians and Bedouins.
Lebanon specifies the religious affiliation of several of its high officers, such as the President (Maronite), the Prime Minister (Sunni Muslim) and the Parliament's Speaker (Shia Muslim). Every electoral district for the parliamentary elections includes a fixed number of the various religious communities.
Pakistan reserves a fixed number of parliamentary seats for non-Muslims and women.
During the British mandate of Palestine at the third election (1931) of the Asefat HaNivharim there were three curiae, for the Ashkenazi Jews, the Sephardi Jews and for the Yemeni Jews.[5][6][7][8]
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 Palestinian general election, 1996), 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.
In the Parliament of Rwanda, a minimum of 30% of elected members of the 26-member Senate must be women. In the 80-member Chamber of Deputies, twenty-four of these seats are reserved for women, elected through a joint assembly of local government officials; another three seats are reserved for youth and disabled members.
Partly resulting from this arrangement, 45 female deputies were elected to the Parliament in 2008, making the country the first and only independent country to possess a female majority in its national legislature.
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 Baathist regime suppressed free elections.[9][10][11]
15 seats out of 255 in the Parliament are reserved for women.
The Ugandan constitution provides for a reserved woman's parliamentary seat from each of the 39 districts.
Political parties are permitted to restrict the selection of their candidates in constituencies to a specific gender under the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002; to date, only the Labour Party utilises the law.
Zimbabwe reserved a fifth of the seats in Parliament for the white minority, until these were abolished by constitutional amendment in 1987.
In the German Länder Schleswig-Holstein (for the Danish and Frisian minorities) and Brandenburg (for the Sorbian minority) as well as in Poland (for the German minority), Romania (18 recognized minorities) and Serbia, political parties representing recognized ethnic minorities enjoy an exemption from the election threshold.