In a 2007 paper published by Dr. Lisa Handley, “Challenging the Norms and Standards of Election Administration: Boundary Delimitation”, she explained how certain fundamental principles should be considered when setting international election standards to guide the delimitation process.
- Impartiality: The boundary authority should be a nonpartisan, independent, and professional body;
- Equality: The populations of constituencies should be as equal as possible to
provide voters with equality of voting strength; - Representativeness: Constituencies should be drawn taking into account
cohesive communities, defined by such factors as administrative boundaries,
geographic features, and communities of interest; - Non-discrimination: The delimitation process should be devoid of electoral
boundary manipulation that discriminates against voters on account of race, color,
language, religion, or related status; and - Transparency: The delimitation process should as transparent and accessible to
the public as possible.
Dr. Handley concluded that “there is no single best model for delimiting constituency boundaries. The wide variety of delimitation practices, many of them quite successful, attest to this. However, it is important to establish standards to which the delimitation process might aspire, if current practices do not already meet them. These standards will need to be flexible to be relevant to both mature and transitional democracies, but underlying all of them should be the fundamental principles of impartiality, equality, representativeness, nondiscrimination, and transparency.
Meeting standards that include an impartial boundary authority (guided by principles like equal voting strength, representativeness, and non-discrimination) as well as a process that is as transparent as possible offers credibility and legitimacy to a process that can have decided political consequences. The table below provides a summary of the principles that should guide the delimitation process and some examples of best practices that meet these standards.“
MARUAH Singapore 