Analysis of Constituencies of Golestan Province After Islamic Revolution of Iran

Representation and delimitation of constituencies in electoral geography are two of the most important arguments in the field of political geography that are in a close relationship with electoral delimitation methods and criteria by which electoral delimitations coincide with scientific constituencies. The complexities of natural and human geography of Golestan province that gathers different elements of natural geography (mountain, jungle, plat, plain, desert and sea) and human geography (different ethnic group – Persian, Turkmen, Sistani, Turk and Baluch – cities, boundaries of country divisions, communicational paths and political and administrative power centers) in a geographical limited environment, have made different problems for the researcher from an electoral geography perspective. In this paper, by the descriptive and analytic approach considering the rate of coincidence of conditions of constituencies of golestan province with standard criteria of electoral delimitation and cases of applying Gerry Mondering phenomenon in delimitation of constituencies of Golestan province, we are searching an answer for the following question: what is the relationship of population ratio of Turkmen ethnic group in Golestan province with their representation in Islamic Council parliament. Based on the results of this research, some cases were found which were in inconsistent with standard constituencies and Gerry Mondering phenomenon in the delimitation of constituencies of Golestan province that has a negative effect on the representation degree of Turkmen ethnic group. After Islamic revolution, Gerry Mondering phenomenon has not been in favor of Turkmen ethnic group but the process of the changing of constituencies of Golestan Province has been in line with coincidence with standard delimitation.