Home > 2.1 The competent bodies and their tasks > REPORT ON CONSTITUENCY DELINEATION AND SEAT ALLOCATION
 
 
 
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Paragraph 21
 

While it is not inadmissible for the legislator or an electoral management body to take the final decision, it should take account of the opinion of a committee the majority of whose members are independent; this committee should preferably include a geographer, a sociologist and have a balanced representation of the parties and, if necessary, representatives of national minorities.  Making an electoral management body fully responsible for boundary delimitation creates a double risk: a risk of politicisation for the Central Electoral Commission, as well as the risk of overloading it.  Giving such a power to Parliament would lead to political decisions. When it acts on the basis of the opinion of an independent committee, there is a risk that it delays any decision due to some MPs fearing to lose their seat in redistribution; for example, in the United Kingdom, the last redistricting took place in 2000 and there is little chance a new one takes place before the next elections planned in 2022.