Reserved political positions
In government, several constitutional arrangements use reserved political positions, especially when endeavoring to ensure the rights of women, minorities or other segments of society, or preserving a political balance of power.
Countries with reserved seats
Europe
Armenia
Since the 2015 Armenian constitutional referendum, electoral law requires that four seats for ethnic minorities are allocated in the National Assembly.Belgium
The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium includes 17 reserved seats for the Flemish minority and the government needs the support from the majority of the Flemish minority, on a total of 89, but there are no separate electorates.Similarly, the Belgian seats of the European Parliament are mainly distributed among two constituencies: a Walloon/Francophone and Flemish/Dutchophone one. The German minority gets one seat reserved.
Croatia
reserves eight seats from the minorities and three for citizens living abroad in its parliament. There are three seats for Serbs, one for Italians, and a few more for other ethnic groups, where a single representative represents more than one group.Cyprus
The Republic of Cyprus is full of reserved political positions. Due to its nature as a bi-communal republic, certain posts are always appropriated among Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. For example, the president is chosen from the Greek Cypriot community by using separate electoral rolls, whereas the vice president is chosen by the Turkish Cypriot community, using their own separate electoral rolls. Similarly 70% of the parliament are chosen from Greek Cypriots whereas 30% are chosen by and from Turkish Cypriots. In the Supreme Court, there should be one Greek Cypriot, one Turkish Cypriot and one neutral foreign judge. The seats reserved for Turkish Cypriots have remained empty since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.Denmark
The Folketing consists of 179 representatives, including two from Greenland and two from the Faroe Islands.Finland
The Parliament of Finland consists of 200 representatives, including one from Åland who usually caucuses with the Swedish People's Party of Finland.Kosovo
The Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo has 120 directly elected members; 20 are reserved for national minorities as follows:- 10 seats for the representatives of the Kosovo Serbs.
- 4 seats for the representatives of the Romani, Ashkali and Egyptians.
- 3 seats for the Bosniaks.
- 2 seats for the Turks.
- 1 seat for the Gorani.
Romania
The Parliament of Romania has 467 members as follows:- 331 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
- * 308 directly elected members
- * 19 for each of the ethnic minorities
- * 4 for the Romanian diaspora
- 136 seats in the Senate
- * 134 directly elected members
- * 2 for the Romanian diaspora
Slovenia
The National Assembly of Slovenia has 88 members elected by party-list proportional representation. Another two seats are elected by the Italian and Hungarian ethnic minorities using the Borda count.United Kingdom
Political parties are permitted to restrict the selection of their candidates in constituencies to a specific gender under the Sex Discrimination Act 2002; to date, only the Labour Party utilises the law.The UK also reserves 26 seats in the House of Lords for Church of England bishops, who together are known as the Lords Spiritual.
Additionally, there are five 'protected' constituencies in the House of Commons: one for the Northern Isles, one for the Outer Hebrides, one for Anglesey and two for the Isle of Wight.
The First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland are nominated by the largest party of the largest designation and the largest party of the second largest designation with the largest party in general nominating the First Minister and the other party nominating the Deputy First Minister.
Asia
Bangladesh
50 seats out of 350 in the Parliament are reserved for women.China
China's National People's Congress includes special delegations for the military of China and Taiwan. 55 minority ethnic groups are recognized in China and each has as at least one delegate, though they belong to normal region delegations. Additionally, from 1954 to 1974, the NPC included a special delegation specifically for Overseas Chinese who returned to China.Hong Kong and Macau
and Macau provide for constituencies which represent professional or special interest groups rather than geographical locations. Voters for the members representing these constituencies include both natural persons as well as non-human local entities, including organizations and corporations.India
has seats in the lower house of parliament, state assemblies, local municipal bodies and village-level institutions reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, better-known as Dalits and Adivasis respectively. The election of Dalit and tribal candidates is by the general electorate. Out of 543 constituencies in India's parliament, a total of 131 seats are reserved for representatives from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes only. A new law in 2024, Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam proposes 33% reserved seats for women in the parliament and legislative assemblies of India. This is different from separate electorate practiced in other countries. Many Indian states have had parliamentary reserved seats for the Anglo-Indian community.Iran
reserves a fixed number of seats in the Majlis for certain recognized non-Muslim ethnoreligious groups. To wit, two seats are reserved for the Christian Armenian community, and one seat each is reserved for the Assyrian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian communities.Iraq
83 seats in the Council of Representatives are reserved for women, 9 seats are reserved for minorities.Jordan
has in its parliament reserved seats for women, Christians, Circassians, Chechens, and Bedouins.Kazakhstan
has reserved 30% of party list position for women, youth, and invalids throughout its representative bodies, and 5 seats in the Senate for ethnic minorities.Lebanon
’s National Pact specifies the religious affiliation of several high officials, such as the President, the Prime Minister and the Parliament's Speaker. Every electoral district for the parliamentary elections includes a fixed number of the various religious communities.Pakistan
In the National Assembly of Pakistan, 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 for non-Muslims.Philippines
In Congress, no seats are reserved, although sectoral representatives were appointed by the President to the House of Representatives before the introduction of the party-list system.The Local Government Code also calls for reserved seats in local legislatures for women, workers, and one from the urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, disabled people and other sectors, but for these seats save for the indigenous people, no law except for the indigenous cultural communities, has been passed concerning how these seats will be filled up.
Some local legislatures in the Philippines have a reserved seat for indigenous cultural communities called "Indigenous People Mandatory Representative". These are elected by indigenous peoples themselves.
Singapore
Group Representation Constituency was created in 1988. GRC scheme entrenches the presence of minority MPs in Parliament, ensuring that interests of minority communities are represented in Parliament. In a GRC, a number of candidates comes together to stand for elections to Parliament as a group. Each voter of a GRC casts a ballot for a team of candidates, and not for individual candidates. The original stated purpose of GRCs was to guarantee a minimum representation of minorities in Parliament and ensure that there would always be a multiracial Parliament instead of one made up of a single race.The office of President will be reserved for a particular racial group — if that community has not been represented for five presidential terms.
Taiwan
Since 2008, in the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan, of the total 34 seats of party-list proportional representation, at least half of the party-nominated candidates must be reserved for women. For example, if one party elected 3 candidates of the party-list in the Legislative Yuan, 2 of them must be women. Along with this, since the 1970s six seats are reserved for the indigenous people of Taiwan. There are two constituencies consisting of three seats each reserved for the Highland Aborigine people and the Lowland Aborigine people.Africa
Eritrea
10 seats out of 105 seats in the National Assembly are reserved for women.Rwanda
In the Parliament of Rwanda, a minimum of 30% of elected members of the 26-member Senate must be women. In the 80-member Chamber of Deputies, 24 of these seats are reserved for women, elected through a joint assembly of local government officials; another 3 seats are reserved for youth and disabled members.Partly resulting from this arrangement, 45 female deputies were elected to the Parliament in 2008, making the country the first and only independent country to possess a female majority in its national legislature.