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Brief Profiles of Countries, EMB’s and Partner Organisations of A-WEB

17. Contiguous district – An electoral district that can 27. Electoral district – One of the geographic areas into
be enclosed in a single continuous boundary line. which a country, local authority or supranational
institution may be divided for electoral purposes.
18. Cross-cutting cleavages – Political allegiances of See also Circonscription, Constituency, Electorate
voters which cut across ethnic, religious and class (b) and Riding. An electoral district may elect one
divisions in a society.
or more representatives to an elected body. See
19. Cumulation – The capacity within some electoral Single-member district and Multi-member district.
systems for voters to cast more than one vote for a 28. Electoral formula – That part of the electoral
favoured candidate.
system dealing specifically with the translation of
20. Democratic consolidation – The process by which votes into seats.
a country’s political institutions and democratic 29. Electoral law – One or more pieces of legislation
procedures become legitimized, stable and broadly governing all aspects of the process for electing
accepted by both political actors and the wider the political institutions defined in a country’s
population.
constitution or institutional framework.
21. D’Hondt Formula – One of the options for the 30. Electoral management body (EMB) – The
series of divisors used to distribute seats in List organization tasked under electoral law with the
PR systems which adopt the Highest Average responsibility for the conduct of elections. The EMB
Method. The votes of a party or grouping are divided in most countries consists either of an independent
successively by 1, 2, 3... as seats are allocated to it. commission appointed for the purpose or of part of
Of the available formulas, D’Hondt tends to be the a specified government department.
most favourable to larger parties. See also Sainte-
Laguë Formula. 31. Electoral regulations – Rules subsidiary to
legislation made, often by the electoral management
22. Distribution requirements – The requirement that body, under powers contained in the electoral law
to win election a candidate must win not merely a which govern aspects of the organization and
specified proportion of the vote nationally but also a administration of an election.
specified degree of support in a number of different
states or regions. 32. Electoral system – That part of the electoral law
and regulations which determines how parties and
23. District – Used in this Handbook to mean electoral candidates are elected to a body as representatives.
district.
Its three most significant components are the
24. District magnitude – For an electoral district, the electoral formula, the ballot structure and the
number of representatives to be elected from it. See district magnitude.
also Average district magnitude.
33. Electorate – May have one of two distinct
25. Droop Quota – A variant of quota used in meanings:
proportional representation systems which use the a. The total number of electors registered to vote in
Largest Remainder Method, defined as the total an electoral district.
valid vote divided by the number of seats to be filled b. A synonym for electoral district used
in the electoral district plus one. Also known as predominantly in some anglophone countries.
Hagenbach-Bischoff Quota. See Quota (a). See also See Electoral district.
Hare Quota and Imperiali Quota.
34. External voting – A mechanism by which voters
26. Elector – A person who is both qualified and who are permanently or temporarily absent from a
registered to vote at an election. country are enabled to cast a vote, also called out-
of-country voting. First Past The Post (FPTP) – The

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