Do parties’ decisions to select candidates of immigrant-origin have an effect on ethnic voting? We make a cross-sectional and cross-time of electoral systems and candidate selection procedure using parties as the unit of analysis. This paper focuses on two related dimensions. First, we determine which factors influence the selection of immigrant-origin candidates within each party. By preferring certain aspirants over others and by providing a list of candidates who are supposed to represent different dimensions (socio-economic, cultural, and ethnic) of the electoral districts, parties may try to maximize their own vote shares. Among all those dimensions, the ethnic dimension is an important one. Electoral districts differ in terms of varieties (different ethnic groups) and amplitude (proportion of those ethnic groups). Second, we address the link between the dynamics of candidate selection and the vote share for parties. We will mainly focus on the relation between the proportion of selected CIO candidates on lists and vote share for parties.
