List of electoral districts by nation

Electoral districts go by different names depending on the nation and the office being elected.

In Namibia and in Canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland, "constituency" is also used as an administrative division.

Australia

"List: List of Australian federal electorates"

In Australia, federal constituencies are officially termed "divisions", and their state counterparts "electoral districts". At both levels, though, they are popularly referred to as "electorates" or "seats".

Canada

"List: List of Canada's electoral districts"

In Canada, constituencies are legally known as "electoral districts" (in French, "circonscriptions") for Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assemblies or Members of Provincial Parliament (Ontario) at the provincial level, although "constituency" and the informal term "riding" (or "comté" in French) are also used.

France

"see also: Constituency (France)"

In France, electoral constituencies are known as "circonscriptions électorales".

For parliamentary elections, they are known as "circonscriptions législatives"', and for departmental one, France uses "cantons".

Germany

In Germany, there are 299 basic electoral constituencies (called "Wahlkreise"), accounting for half of the 598 nominal seats in the German Bundestag in a "First Past the Post electoral system". The constituencies for the rest of the seats are the federal states, representatives being drawn from the top of their respective electoral lists. The former constituencies are divided so that each has approximately the same number of voters. German electoral law dictates that the deviation from average of all constituencies shall not exceed a certain figure (see for example [http://www.bpb.de/wissen/JJEYEX,2,0,Wahlsystem_%28%A7%A7_1_bis_7%29.html#art2 § 3 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 in German electoral law] ). Other restrictions prevent abuses such as gerry-mandering.

Similar provisions obtain for many of the federal state parliaments, though constituencies are generally smaller and boundaries change more frequently. Representatives to the European Parliament are only elected by party proportion and state.

Hong Kong

The unicameral Legislative Council has 60 members, 30 returned from five geographical constituencies based on the Hare quota and largest remainder method, and the remaining 30 returned through 28 functional constituencies.

Iceland

In Iceland, there are 6 constituencies, which are Norðvesturkjördæmi, Norðausturkjördæmi, Suðvesturkjördæmi, Suðurkjördæmi, Reykjavíkurkjördæmi norður, and Reykjavíkurkjördæmi suður. The Icelandic word for constituency is "kjordæmi".

Ireland (Republic)

Constituencies in the Republic of Ireland elect between three and five Teachta Dálas (TDs}.

India

In India constituency is an area, where people of this notified area elect their representative either to Lok Sabha or state legislature or local governing bodies. India has multi tier democratic system . The apex legislature body of India which form part of Union government is Loksabha ( Lower house ), then there are state legislature also called legislative assembly ( Vidhan Sabha ), then Zilla Parishad, Taluk Panchayat and Grama Panchayat.Hence every area has a constituency under which it falls."List:List of Indian constituencies"

Lebanon

Lebanon has multi-seat constituencies.In kultali Mr. Jaykrishna Halder is the MLA belonging from SUCI party.

Malaysia

There are 222 parliamentary constituencies in Malaysia. The seats are indicated as "P.xxx". Each constituency is represented by an elected Member of Parliament who sits at the lower house of the Parliament of Malaysia called "Dewan Rakyat". With the exception of Federal Territory parliamentary seats, these constituencies are further divided into 505 state legislative assembly districts, whose representative will sit at their respective state legislative assembly. The state assembly seats are indicated as "N.xx".

Mexico

The Federal Electoral Districts of Mexico are the 300 constituencies or electoral districts into which Mexico is divided for the purpose of federal elections. Each district returns one Federal Deputy, who sits in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Federal Congress. An additional 200 deputies are elected by proportional representation.

New Zealand

New Zealand uses a proportional representation system, with a parliament usually consisting of 120 seats. Of these, 60 are constituency-specific ("electorate seats"), with 15 of these seats being for South Island constituencies and the remainder being for the North Island. A further five seats are specifically for Maori electorates, this number determined by the size of the Maori electoral roll. The use of a separate Maori roll is a continuing controversy in New Zealand, with many seeing it as anachronistic and separatist.

Voters are each entitled to two votes, one for their local electorate contest, and one for the nationwide party vote. The remaining 55 seats are allocated from party lists on a proportional basis, based on the nationwide party vote tally. Occasionally, as in the current parliament, this results in an "overhang" - a 121st seat being required to accommodate the correct proportion of Members of Parliament. Only parties which record either 5% of the nationwide party vote or win one or more electoral seats may be awarded list seats.

The size of New Zealand electorates is determined on a population basis such that all electorates have approximately the same population.

ingapore

In Singapore, there are 14 group representation constituencies and nine single-member constituencies, giving a total of 23 constituencies. Group representation constituencies elect between three to six MPs to the Parliament of Singapore, while single member constituencies elect one.

pain

In Spain, electoral constituencies are known as "circunscripciones". Under Article 68 of the Spanish constitution [ [http://www.mir.es/DGPI/Normativa/Normativa_Estatal/Constitucion_Espanola/constitucion_espanola.html Spanish Constitution] ] the boundaries must be the same as the provinces of Spain and under Article 140 this can only be altered with the approval of Congress. Voting is on the basis of universal suffrage in a secret ballot. Article 68 also states that the number of deputies must not be less than 300 nor exceed 400, that the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla should be single member districts, that provinces should be guaranteed an initial minimum representation and that the electoral system should be proportional representation, although it does not specify a particular type.

Constituency magnitude has normally been small. Currently 27 of the 52 districts elect between three and five members. A further ten elect six or seven members. This has tended to favour the larger parties at the expense of smaller lists. Consequently it has been common for smaller parties to form ad hoc alliances with larger parties by forming joint lists. [ [http://electionresources.org/es/index_en.html#ALLOCATION Election Resources on the Internet: Elections to the Spanish Congress of Deputies ] ] The electoral system used is closed list proportional representation with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method. Only lists which poll 3% or more of all valid votes cast, including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above" can be considered for seats. In practice the 3% threshold has usually been unnecessary as the effective representation threshold has been much higher. The sole exception was the 1993 election in Madrid where a minor party list lost a seat. [ [http://electionresources.org/es/index_en.html#PROPORTIONAL Election Resources on the Internet: Elections to the Spanish Congress of Deputies ] ]

witzerland

In Switzerland, the Canton of St. Gallen uses the "Wahlkreise" (constituency or electoral district) in place of the previous, and more usual, district. See Canton of St. Gallen#Constituencies and municipalities.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a parliamentary constituency is sometimes called a "Parliamentary seat" or a "Division". Constituencies for local government elections are called either "Wards" or "electoral divisions".

As of 2005, there are 646 House of Commons constituencies in the UK:
*List of Parliamentary constituencies in the United Kingdom
*MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005 lists the constituencies after that election.

Northern Ireland has 18 constituencies, each of which elect six MLAs to the Northern Ireland Assembly under the Single Transferable Vote system.

The Scottish Parliament has 73 single-member constituencies elected on a first past the post basis, with the remaining 56 seats in the parliament being selected by the Additional Member System (AMS). Since the passage of the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004, the constituencies of the Scottish Parliament are no longer identical to those of the House of Commons.

The National Assembly for Wales has 40 constituencies elected by first past the post which are identical to the Welsh constituencies of the House of Commons. Its remaining 20 seats are selected by AMS.

The London Assembly has 14 constituencies elected by first past the post, described in the article on London Assembly constituencies. Its remaining 11 seats are also selected by AMS.

United States

In the United States, electoral constituencies for the federal House of Representatives are known as "congressional districts" (of which there are presently 435; the number can be increased so long as it does not exceed the constitutional limit of one per 30,000 citizens), while the constituencies for the variously named state legislatures go by a variety of names (and have differing numbers). Long standing practice, reinforced and modified by several U.S. Supreme Court decisions, require the equalization of populations of constituencies after each decennial census, a process known as redistricting.

When driven by partisan bodies, this process opens up the possibility of gerrymandering for political or factional advantage. Gerrymandering cannot be used to the disadvantage of any specific racial group (e.g., placing a predominantly African-American community in several districts to dilute the vote would be unconstitutional), but is perfectly legal to dilute the voting strength of the opposing party.

Others

Most of the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations also use constituencies as electoral divisions. For details of constituencies in these and other places see:
*List of Ghana Parliament constituencies
*Legislative Council of Hong Kong
*Constituencies of Namibia