With your vote in the Bundestag election, you can prevent AfD seats in parliament. Understanding the parliamentary system and the latest electoral law reform is crucial to casting an informed vote. We explain what has changed.
How does our electoral system work?
The electoral law provides for personalized proportional representation. Personalized means that the first vote goes directly to the candidate from the constituency. The person who wins in this constituency enters the Bundestag as a direct candidate. This is called a direct mandate. Proportional representation means that the second vote determines the balance of power, i.e. the distribution of seats among the parties in the Bundestag. The seats in the Bundestag are initially allocated to the direct candidates who have won in the constituencies. All remaining seats, which are allocated to the parties according to the result of the second votes, are allocated to candidates who are on the parties’ state lists.
What is the basic mandate clause?
This means that a party enters the Bundestag if it has either received more than 5% of the second votes or if it receives at least 3 direct mandates via the first vote. Otherwise, it is not considered in the distribution of seats in the Bundestag.
What are overhang and compensatory mandates?
The electoral law reform has abolished overhang and compensatory mandates. If a party received more direct mandates than the number of seats it was entitled to in parliament based on the second vote result, the direct mandates were not eliminated, but were also included in the Bundestag. To ensure that a party does not have more seats in parliament than the other parties, the other parties receive compensatory seats to restore the balance of power. Overhanging and compensatory seats led to the parliament becoming ever larger.
Electoral law reform 2023
The electoral law reform is intended to limit the number of MPs to 630 so that parliament does not continue to grow. To this end, overhang and compensatory seats have been abolished and each party will only receive as many seats as it is entitled to according to the result of the second votes. The direct candidates with the best results in their constituencies will be the first to enter the Bundestag on behalf of a party.
Effects of the electoral law reform
Direct mandates no longer guarantee automatic entry into the Bundestag. The constituency winners with poorer election results are left empty-handed.
