Home > 1.2.2 Equal voting power/constituency delimitation > REPORT ON CONSTITUENCY DELINEATION AND SEAT ALLOCATION
 
 
 
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Paragraph 28
 

A big number of countries make constituencies correspond to federated, regional or other subnational entities. For example, Albania uses 12 constituencies to elect its 140 members of parliament. The borders coincide with the administrative divisions.  Andorra uses the existing country’s parishes, which are each assigned 2 seats.  Austria has 9 multi-member constituencies that range in size from 7 to 37 seats each and whose borders are the same as the country’s provinces (Länder). The provinces are the constituencies. Brazil has multi-member constituencies ranging between 8 and 70 seats and corresponding to the states, territories and the federal district.  Belgium has 11 constituencies that are between 4 and 24 seats each and correspond with the provinces and the administrative district of Brussels.  Bulgaria divides its 240 seats over 31 constituencies. Three of the constituencies are in the Sofia City, two in the Administrative Region of Plovdiv. The rest of the constituencies coincide with the existing administrative regions.  Costa Rica has 7 constituencies corresponding to the provinces for 57 seats.  For the allocation of the 56 seats in Parliament, Cyprus has six multi-member constituencies that correspond to the six districts of the country.  In Finland the constituencies are groups of municipalities which correspond substantially to the provinces. Liechtenstein has fixed the boundaries of the 2 constituencies and the number of seats allocated to them appears in the Constitution. The Upper Country has 15 seats and the Lower Country 10 seats.  In Luxembourg the constituencies correspond to four groups of cantons.  For its multi-member constituencies, Mexico uses administrative and geographical boundaries, in a way that each of the 5 constituencies has 40 seats.  Norway uses 19 multi-member constituencies, corresponding to the counties.  In Peru there are 130 seats, divided over 26 constituencies equal to the departments and the provinces of Lima and Callao.  Portugal uses the administrative constituencies as electoral constituencies when it comes to the mainland. Apart from these constituencies, there is a constituency for the Madeira Autonomous Region and a constituency for the Azores Autonomous Region. Finally, voters living outside Portugal are divided over two constituencies; one of them covers the territory of the European countries and the other one the remaining countries and Macao.  Romania has 41 constituencies for the departments, one for the municipality of Bucharest and one for Romanians living abroad.  Spain has for its Congress of Deputies 50 multi-member constituencies and 2 single-member constituencies, corresponding to the provinces plus the cities of Ceuta and Melilla ; the constituencies for the Senate are the same, except for special rules applying to the islands.  Switzerland has 20 cantonal two member constituencies and 6 single member ones for the Council of the States. For the National Council it uses 26 multi- or single member constituencies which also coincide with the 26 cantons.  Turkey uses the 85 provinces as multi-member constituencies.