ABC, a viable algorithm for the political districting problem

Abstract

Since 2004, the Federal districting processes have been carried out using a Simulated Annealing based algorithm. However, in 2014, for the local districting of the state of México, a traditional Simulated Annealing technique and an Artificial Bee Colony based algorithm were proposed. Both algorithms used a weight aggregation function to manage the multi-objective nature of the problem, but the population based technique produced better solutions. In this paper, the same techniques are applied to six Mexican states, in order to compare the performance of both algorithms. Results show that the Artificial Bee Colony based algorithm is a viable option for this kind of problems.