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"The principle of equal suffrage nevertheless applies also to ‘threshold’ requirements, which can be and are used to deny representation to parties that fail to secure a prescribed percentage of the overall vote. Such criteria are commonly used to reduce the numbers of small or sectional interests in the legislature and to enhance the prospects for the formation of a viable government. Unless compensatory steps are taken, however, this technique can effectively disenfranchise substantial minorities. International standards nevertheless constrain and structure the choices available to States. The underlying obligation of result, combined with principles of equality, reasonableness and proportionality, can be used to mediate between the objective and the means chosen, and to show whether the system and its implementation in practice conform to what is required by international law. In short, the State is not free to use the ‘valid’ electoral technique of the threshold requirement in order to bar particular groups from representation in Parliament."
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