In September 24, 2017, all German citizens over the age of 18 will have the chance to exercise their right to vote in the German Federal Election, or Bundestagwahl. The Election will elect Members of Parliament – and the party with most members in the Parliament, or the Bundestag, will be able to choose a Chancellor. This method of election is due to German’s parliamentary system.
Parliamentary System 101
The parliamentary system is a system of democratic governance where the executive branch derives from the legislative branch. So, if the United States does not have an executive branch, in other words, let’s pretend the White House and the President does not exist, the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan would be the head of the government. Parliamentary system is the dominant form of government in Europe, as well as in countries that were British colonies (think Canada and Australia).
There is a distinction between the Head of State and the Head of Government in a parliamentary system. The Head of Government has the power and responsibility to run the country, but of course with the approval of his or her cabinet and the members of parliament (check and balances is really a tremendous system). The Head of State, in the other hand, has a ceremonial role in the government. His or her role legitimizes the government and functions as a unifier of the state.
In the context of Germany, the Head of Government is Chancellor Angela Merkel, also the leader of Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party with the most seats in the Bundestag. The Head of State is President Frank-Walter Stenmeier, who is affiliated to the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
So what are Germans voting for on September 24?
Easy answer: Members of Parliament (MPs)
More thorough answer: Each eligible German voter will get a chance to cast two votes: one for a candidate, and one for a political party.
The candidates votes will be counted simply, whoever gets the most votes in one district would be declared the winner and be sent to Berlin as the representative of the district he or she won. These candidates will fill half of the Bundestag’s absolute minimum 598 seats or the first 299 seats.
The party vote is where it gets tricky. The other 299 seats are allocated to party lists in Germany’s 16 Länder (or states). And how are these seats allocated? It’s based of the percentage of the second votes received nationwide (but not including parties that receive less than 5% of votes nationwide). The percentage of MPs that are elected through the second vote are directly proportionate to the number of votes the party receives nationwide. This way, extremist parties will be kept out of the Bundestag.
The number of seats in the parliament may increase during the process of allocating the seats. This is known as overhang seats and additional balance seats. But how many overhang seats and balance seats do they need? By determining what is the minimum number of seats from each party in the state on the federal level. Each state’s minimum number is calculated based of their first votes (the votes for their candidates) and their second votes (the votes for the party list). The higher of these two figures is the party’s minimum number of seats in that particular state. Still with me? The last step is to add together the minimum number of party seats in all 16 German states. And that is how you determine the number of seats a party is entitled in the Bundestag.
Cheat Sheet (or how I would explain it to my mother):
Step 1. You have two votes
Step 2. You use your two votes to pick a candidate and a political party
Step 3. The candidate that receives the most vote from the first votes gets sent to Berlin as a Member of Parliament. Since there are 299 districts in Germany, 299 MPs will be elected this way.
Step 4. The second votes are counted and the parties get to sent X number of MPs affiliated to their parties depending on how much votes they get. But parties with lesser than 5% of the votes don’t get to send no one. Sorry.
Step 5. The number of minimum party representative from each state is calculated by determining the higher of the two total votes (remember the two votes each German get?). If your party is deemed to be needing more seats than it already sent, then additional balance seats are added and your party gets to send more MPs to the Bundestag.
Why so complicated?
Easy answer: So the party won’t be underrepresented.
More complicated (but thorough) answer: To ensure the seats in the Bundestag are distributed to the parties in line with their national share of the second votes and that no party receives fewer than its guaranteed minimum number of seats. They are also necessary to ensure that each party requires roughly the same number of second votes per seat.
Finally, to help you understand it better…
The 18th Bundestag
Total seats: 631
Seats breakdown
Minimum number of seats in the Parliament: 598
Overhang seats: 4 (to CDU, because the party won more constituency seats than it would have been entitled to based on its share of the second votes)
Balance seats: 28 to ensure the relative strengths of the parties in Parliament continue to reflect the share of second votes won. And are awarded as such
- CDU: 13
- SPD: 10
- Green: 2
- Die Linke: 2
Chasing Elections 