This paper contends that in some semi-democratic regimes the participation in electoral politics of ethnopolitical activists does not end overt conflict between the state and challengers. Instead, this activity, here called 'representative contention', in some cases constitutes an important form of social movement activism and can help explain how movements in semi-democratic regimes survive, consolidate and advance their agendas. As an example, the paper argues that pro-Kurdish participation in national and local politics between 1990 and 2005 provided the movement with a new institutional basis for public gathering, legal protection from prosecution, new access to domestic and international audiences, and new symbolic resources. Cumulatively, this consolidated the movement in relatively stable arenas and helped sustain it when the movement's armed flank was weak.