The Bundestag is the unicameral parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is the highest legislative body of the state. Parliament is formed on the basis of its election by the citizens of Germany, through general free elections, for a period of 4 years.
Instructions
Step 1
The FRG Constitution does not establish detailed rules on the electoral system. At the moment, the procedure for elections to the Bundestag is regulated by the 1993 Federal Election Law. The right to elect parliamentarians is granted to German citizens who have lived in the state for at least three months and have reached the age of 18.
Step 2
This right to vote is called active. Passive suffrage, that is, the right to be elected to parliament, is granted to citizens who have reached the age of 18, have been in German citizenship for at least one year and are not deprived of active suffrage. There is no electoral turnout in Germany.
Step 3
The German parliament is composed of deputies elected by secret, general, free elections for a term of 4 years. Deputies have immunity, parliamentary indemnity, and their powers cannot be terminated ahead of schedule upon the recall of voters.
Step 4
The electoral law sets the total number of parliamentarians at 631. The elections themselves are held according to a mixed electoral system: half of the deputies are elected by electoral districts, the other half - by party lists (the so-called land list of parties).
Step 5
In an election, each voter has two votes. One vote is given for a candidate for deputy in an electoral district, the second vote is given for the land list of candidates of a particular party. The candidate with the most votes wins in the constituency. Germany is divided into 299 single-member constituencies, thus filling half of the seats in the Bundestag. The second half of the parliament is filled with candidates from the land party lists. There are 16 federal states in Germany, so each state is a multi-member constituency.
Step 6
To determine the number of mandates received from party lists, the Hare-Niemeyer counting system is used: all "second votes" cast for a party list of a particular party are summed up and multiplied by the total number of mandates distributed. The resulting number is then divided by the total number of "second votes" cast for all party lists. Thus, the share of seats of each party in parliament is calculated. Only those parties are involved in the distribution of mandates that have collected at least 5 percent of the vote across the state.
