The Electoral System : Germany

Elections for all parliaments in Germany are general, direct, free, equal and secret. Any German who is 18 years of age or older, has been residing in Germany for at least three months and has not been disfranchised is entitled to vote. Upon fulfillment of certain conditions, Germans living abroad can also vote in elections. Anyone who has possessed German nationality for at least one year is eligible to stand for election if he or she has attained the age of 1 8 by the day on which the election is held and has neither been disfranchised nor lost his or her eligibility I stand for election or hold public office as a consequence of judge’s ruling.

There are no primary elections. As a rule, the candidates are nominated by their parties; however, individuals with no party affiliation may also run for office. Elections for the German Bundestag are based on a system of “personalized” proportional representation. Voters have two votes, the first of which is given to a candidate in their constituency. The successful candidate is elected on a first-past-the-post basis. The second vote is given to a list of candidates put up by the parties.

The votes from the constituencies and those for the state lists are offset in such a way that the composition of the Bundestag almost identically reflects the distribution of votes among the parties.

If a party has won more direct seats in the constituencies than its proportion of the votes would justify (these being known as “overhang” seats), it is allowed to keep them, whereby no compensation is provided for the other parties. Whenever this happens, the Bundestag has more than the 656 members prescribed by law, hence the present 672. The object of having the electorate vote for state lists is to ensure that the strengths of all parties in parliament reflect their shares of the votes obtained. °n the other hand, the constituency vote, the first v°te, gives people the chance to choose a particular candidate.

Normally, tne people take a keen interest in elections, ‘he turnout for the Bundestag election of 1 994 was /9-0 percent. It tends to fluctuate at state and local ‘°ns, but it is usually around 70 percent.

of h”n”nances- As f 1996, the memberships the parties represented in the Bundestag were as oiiows: SPD 798,000; CDU 651,000; CSU 180,000; up 76,000; PDS 114,000; and Alliance 90/TheGreens 48,000. All parties require their members to pay subscriptions which, however, cover only part of their expenses. The donations received, too, are insufficient. Moreover, there is a danger of big donors influencing the parties for their own ends. Therefore, pursuant to the new provisions of the Law on Political Parties governing party financing which entered into force on 1 January 1994, the parties receive from the state DM 1.30 per vote for up to five million valid votes which they poll in elections to the Bundestag, the European Parliament and the state parliaments. For each additional vote they receive DM 1.00. Moreover, 50 Pfennigs are paid for each DM 1.00 which a party receives from members’ subscriptions or from donations. These amounts may not exceed the funds raised by the party per year. The public grants for all parties together may not total more than DM 230 million (absolute limit).