German Electoral system

The German electoral system is a analog and digital System which mixes majority Uninominal system with a turn and Scrutin proportional plurinominal. These characteristics contributed to the formation of a original system of parties in which two average dominant parties and several parties coexist.

It should be noted that the German federalism entrusts the legislation on the regional elections and local to the Länder , which thus have a whole an electoral law slightly different from that which prevails for the federal elections. Today, only Bremen and the the Saar have a notably different system for the regional elections, without majority component. The systems of the Bade-Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Hamburg also present some outstanding originalities.

General operation

As in any analog and digital system the German electoral system is based on the election of part of the representatives to the majority poll in districts and remainder with the poll proportional on an electoral roll.

Concretely the German voter generally has two votes, materialized by two columns on ballot paper (except for the elections of the Parliaments of Bade-Wurtemberg, Bremen, Hamburg, Rhineland-of-North-Westphalia and of the Saar). The first voice ( Erststimme or Personenstimme ) is used for the election with the majority poll with a turn ( First past the post ) of the representative of the district. The second voice ( Zweitstimme or Landesstimme ) makes it possible to allocate, according to a ratable distribution, the seats of the authority to be elected with the various political parties. There does not exist in Germany of direct election of a person but at the communal level, the chancellor coming from the majority to the Bundestag and chair it elected by an electoral college composed of the deputies of the Bundestag and representatives of the Länder ( Bundesversammlung ).

With the elections of the Parliaments of Bade-Wurtemberg and Rhineland-of-North-Westphalia the voter has only one vote for the election of a direct candidate in his district and at the same time of his party on the level of the Land .

The Parliaments of Bremen, the Saar and - until the elections of February 29th, 2004 - of Hamburg are elected by poll proportional without elements of majority poll.

Direct mandates and mandates of lists

The mandates resulting from the majority poll are baptized in German Direktmandate (direct mandates). Any candidate who joins together a relative majority of the voters on his candidature is ensured to be elected.

To take part in the ratable distribution of the seats a party must on the other hand meet certain variable conditions according to the elections ( Sperrklausel ), in general more than 5% of the totality of the votes. The rule of distribution of the seats varies according to the elections. For the federal elections it is an alternative of the quotient of Hare, baptized in Germany “Method of Hare-Niemeyer”.

The calculation of the composition of the elected authority proceeds in two stages:

the whole of the seats is distributed according to the proportion of the “second voices” obtained by each party
the seats obtained by a party are filled by the elected officials having obtained a direct mandate. As the number of districts is fixed in order to provide approximately half of the seats, the remainder of the Parliament is filled with the lists of candidates presented by each party. In general, the order of the candidates in these lists are fixed by the parties before the elections. With the elections of the Parliaments of Bade-Wurtemberg and Bavaria, the order depends on the votes obtained by each candidate.

While following this procedure, it is completely possible that a party having collected a big number of “first voices” but relatively few “second voices” obtains more direct mandates than the number of seats which is allocated to him with the proportional one. These mandates are called additional mandates ( Überhangmandate ). This case of figure in particular in the case of arises parties whose electorate is concentrated in some districts but which does not obtain very good performances on the whole of the population. This characteristic explains the fact that it is impossible to envisage the number of members of the Bundestag . Since the boundary changes of September 2002, this number varies in the neighborhoods of 600. Additional mandates are very probable with the elections of the Parliaments of Rhineland-of-North-Westphalia and Lower Saxony because here the rate of direct mandates on the total of the mandates is of 71% and 66%.

In general, so with the regional elections a party gains additional mandates, the Parliament is increased in such a way that the ratable distribution of the mandates is restored ( Ausgleichmandate ). For example, with the regional elections of the Lower Saxony in 2003 the CDU gained 91 direct mandates and 48,3% of the votes. To restore the ratable distribution, the Parliament was increased from 151 to 183 mandates.

Paradoxes

History and future of the electoral system

Evolution of the electoral system in FRG

Reform projects

The electoral system says “poll proportional personalized” ( personalisierte Verhältniswahl ) is criticized because it does not give the voters of great influence on the personal composition of the Parliaments. Only the great parties (CDU, CSU, SPD and in the East PDS) are able to gain direct mandates. Moreover, there are districts known as “ensured” that a certain party always or almost always gained. The voter does not have almost any possibility of improving or of decreasing the chances of a certain candidate to be elected.

The June 13rd 2004, in Hamburg an allowing electoral reform the office plurality of votes and mixing was adopted by referendum. The territory from now on is divided into 17 districts plurinominales. Each district elects between three and five deputies according to his population, on the whole 71 of the 121 deputies are elected in the districts. The voter has five votes for the election of the deputies of his circonscritpion and five votes for the election with proportional to the level of the Land . He has free choice between all the candidates, the office plurality of the votes and the election of candidates of various parties is allowed. The distribution of the mandates in the districts and on the level of the Land follows the method of Holy-Laguë.

Federal elections

Districts

Germany is divided into 299 districts according to the following rules fixed at paragraph 3 of the electoral law of July 23rd, 1993 ( Bundeswahlgesetz ).

No district can join together parts of two Länder different.
the number of districts of each Land must be equal to the proportion of its population of German nationality.
the population of German nationality of each district must be between 75% and 125% of the average population of all the districts. It is preferable that it is between 85% and 115%.
It should not have there exclaves and enclaves of the districts.
the limits of the districts and communes must be respected if possible.

The limits of the districts are fixed by law of the March 11th 2005 (federal Bulletin of the laws section I page 674):

Conditions to form a parliamentary group

A parliamentary group ( Fraktion ) with the Bundestag can be formed by at least five percent of the members of the Parliament who belong to the same party. Similar parties of programs which are not competed with in any Land (currently CDU and CSU) are regarded as only one party. The formation of a parliamentary group which does not comply with these rules claims the authorization of the Bundestag .

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