| Constituencies of the Bahamas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Electoral district |
| Location | The Bahamas |
| Number | 39 |
| Populations | 3,000 (St Barnabas) – 7,100 (Golden Isles) |
| Government | |
Constituencies of the Bahamas are the electoral divisions for the Bahamas House of Assembly, the lower Parliamentary house. The Assembly currently has 39 single-member constituencies and uses the Westminster first past the post system. The Members of Parliament (MPs) serve 5-year-terms. [1] [2] The last election was in 2021.
The Constituencies Commission conducts a review of the electoral boundaries every 5 years and makes recommendations to ensure that there is parity of numbers in each constituency. [4]
The 2021 report found that three constituencies have over 6 thousand registered voters, whilst five have under 5,000. The Commission suggests that each constituency have around 5,000 voters with a margin of 500. [5]
In representative electoral systems, gerrymandering is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries to advantage a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The manipulation may involve "cracking" or "packing". Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Wayne Dawkins, a professor at Morgan State University, describes it as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.
Electoral systems of the Australian states and territories are broadly similar to the electoral system used in federal elections in Australia.
In the United Kingdom, the boundary commissions are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions: one each for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
An electoral district in Canada is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based. It is officially known in Canadian French as a circonscription but frequently called a comté (county). In Canadian English it is also colloquially and more commonly known as a riding or constituency.
Electorates of the Australian House of Representatives are single member electoral districts for the lower house of the Parliament of the Commonwealth. There are currently 151 electorates.
Elections in the Bahamas take place in the framework of a parliamentary democracy. Since independence, voter turnout has been generally high in national elections, with a low of 87.9% in 1987 and a high of 98.5% in 1997. The current Prime Minister is The Hon. Philip Davis. The electorate is less than half of citizenry.
Elections in Barbados are held to choose members to fill elective offices in the House of Assembly. Elections are held on Election Day. These general elections do not have fixed dates, but must be called within five years of the opening of parliament following the last election. A former minister of the DLP, Warwick Franklin summed up the general elections process in Barbados as saying it is really just, "30 by-elections on the same day."
The Parliament of Eswatini is bicameral, consisting of a lower chamber and an upper one. Some of the members of both chambers are elected, while the rest are appointed by the King of Eswatini. Election is by secret ballot in a first-past-the-post system of voting. Members of both chambers serve for five-year terms. All candidates run on a non-partisan basis, as political parties are banned.
The Senedd constituencies and electoral regions are the electoral districts used to elect members of the Senedd to the Senedd, and have been used in some form since the first election of the then National Assembly for Wales in 1999. New boundaries were introduced for the 2007 elections and currently consist of forty constituencies and five regions. The five electoral regions are: Mid and West Wales, North Wales, South Wales Central, South Wales East, and South Wales West, with the forty constituencies listed below. Voting last took place in all districts in the 2021 Senedd election, and is not used for local government.
There are four types of elections in Wales: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to the devolved Senedd, local elections to community councils and the 22 principal areas, and the police and crime commissioner elections. In addition there are by-elections for each aforementioned election. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Three of these four types of elections are held after fixed periods; the exception is UK general elections, the timing of which is at the discretion of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Senedd elections may be postponed to avoid elections to the UK parliament and Senedd coinciding with each other.
Preseli Pembrokeshire is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Mid and West Wales electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to eight constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Pontypridd is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the South Wales Central electoral region that elects four additional members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Cardiff South and Penarth is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post electoral system. It is typically a safe Labour seat.
Aberavon is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of seven constituencies in the South Wales West electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to seven constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The Constituency Commission is an independent commission in Ireland which had advised on redrawing of constituency boundaries of Dáil constituencies for the election of members to Dáil Éireann and European Parliament constituencies prior to the establishment of the Electoral Commission in 2023. Each commission was established by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government after the census. The Commission then submitted a non-binding report to the Oireachtas, and was dissolved. A separate but similar Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee fulfilled the same function for local electoral area boundaries of local government areas.
Electoral boundary delimitation is the drawing of boundaries of electoral precincts and related divisions involved in elections, such as states, counties or other municipalities. It can also be called "redistribution" and is used to prevent unbalance of population across districts. In the United States, it is called redistricting. Unbalanced or discriminatory delimitation is called "gerrymandering." Though there are no internationally agreed processes that guarantee fair delimitation, several organizations, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Union and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) have proposed guidelines for effective delimitation.
There are five types of elections in the United Kingdom: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, local elections, mayoral elections, and police and crime commissioner elections. Within each of those categories, there may also be by-elections. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday, and under the provisions of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 the timing of general elections can be held at the discretion of the prime minister during any five-year period. All other types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to the devolved assemblies and parliaments can occur in certain situations. The five electoral systems used are: the single member plurality system (first-past-the-post), the multi-member plurality, the single transferable vote, the additional member system, and the supplementary vote.
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011(c. 1) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made provision for the holding of a referendum on whether to introduce the Alternative Vote system in all future general elections to the UK Parliament and also made provision on the number and size of parliamentary constituencies. The Bill for the Act was introduced to the House of Commons on 22 July 2010 and passed third reading on 2 November by 321 votes to 264. The House of Lords passed the Bill, with amendments, on 14 February 2011, and after some compromises between the two Houses on amendments, it received Royal Assent on 16 February 2011.
General elections were held in the Bahamas on 16 September 2021 to elect all 38 members of the House of Assembly.
Tobago West is a parliamentary electoral district in Trinidad and Tobago, comprising the western part of Tobago. It is currently represented by Shamfa Cudjoe.