Federal electoral districts of Mexico
The federal electoral districts (Spanish: distritos electorales federales) 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 (diputado), who sits in the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados), the lower house of the Federal Congress. An additional 200 deputies are elected by proportional representation from the five electoral regions.
Electoral districts are identified by Roman numerals and by federal entity (state or the Federal District). The number of electoral districts was set at 300 in 1979, when the number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies was increased from 196. The demarcation of the districts depends on the results of the previous electoral census, and adjustments to the 1979 districts were made in 1996 and 2005.
Irrespective of population, no state may be represented by fewer than two electoral districts. This is the case with Baja California Sur (population: 512,000), Campeche (population: 755,000) and Colima (population: 568,000), which, as a result, return more senators than deputies to Congress. The states with the most electoral districts are the state of México (population: 14 million), with 40, and Veracruz (population: 7.1 million), with 21. The Federal District, with a population of 8.8 million, has 27.
On 11 February 2005, the Federal Electoral Institute (now the National Electoral Institute) established the districts to be used in the 2006 general election and the 2009 mid-term election, in accordance with the following criteria:
- Each district to belong to only one federal entity.
- Balanced distribution of population between districts.
- Presence of indigenous populations.
- Geographical continuity.
- Travel times.
Under this scheme, the current electoral districts are the following:
Electoral districts
The numbers indicate the number of districts in each federal entity for federal elections between 2006 and 2015.
States A-C
- 1st district: 1857-present
- 2nd district: 1857-present
- 3rd district: 1863-1902, 1997-present
- 4th district: 1867-1902 (defunct)
- At-large: 1857-1955
- 1st district: 1955-present
- 2nd district: 1955-present
- 3rd district: 1961-present
- 4th district: 1964-1967, 1979-present
- 5th district: 1979-present
- 6th district: 1979-present
- 7th district: 2006-present
- 8th district: 2006-present
- 1st district: 1976-present
- 2nd district: 1976-present
District | Head town |
---|---|
I Federal Electoral District of Campeche | Campeche |
II Federal Electoral District of Campeche | Ciudad del Carmen |
District | Head town |
---|---|
I Federal Electoral District of Colima | Colima |
II Federal Electoral District of Colima | Manzanillo |
States D-M
District | Head town |
---|---|
I Federal Electoral District of Durango | Durango |
II Federal Electoral District of Durango | Gómez Palacio |
III Federal Electoral District of Durango | Guadalupe Victoria |
IV Federal Electoral District of Durango | Durango |
V Federal Electoral District of Durango | Defunct as of 2005 |
VI Federal Electoral District of Durango | Defunct as of 1996 |
VII Federal Electoral District of Durango | Defunct as of 1930 |
VIII Federal Electoral District of Durango | Defunct as of 1930 |
States N-Q
District | Head town |
---|---|
I Federal Electoral District of Nayarit | Santiago Ixcuintla |
II Federal Electoral District of Nayarit | Tepic |
III Federal Electoral District of Nayarit | Compostela |
States S-Z
District | Head town |
---|---|
I Federal Electoral District of Tlaxcala | Apizaco |
II Federal Electoral District of Tlaxcala | Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl |
III Federal Electoral District of Tlaxcala | Zacatelco |
See also
- Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
- Elections in Mexico
- Electoral regions of Mexico
- Federal Electoral Institute
External links
- Electoral Districts Archived 2008-08-08 at the Wayback Machine (Instituto Federal Electoral)