Abstract:

This Article is about the distribution of electoral votes across the political party lists at the federal level (the first distribution) and the state level (the second distribution). It also investigates the legal and structural problems related to the distribution system that occurred because of the frequent changes and amendments to the legal regulations of the electoral system of the Federal Republic of Germany. Moreover, previous articles of the German Electoral Code, which were amended 22 times since 1949, are briefly summarized. The government and the opposition agreed on the outline of a new Code after the Federal Electoral Code was annulled by the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany on the 25th of July 2012, as a result of the opposition’s application to the Constitutional Court. As a result, the Federal Parliament introduced a new concept to the Federal Electoral Code to solve the problem: “adjustment seats” (Ausgleichmandat) instead of giving up the concept of “overhang seats” (Überhangsmandate). Overhang seats existed in the previous regulations and had a special place in the German electoral system, but were specifically highlighted as a problem by the Federal Constitutional Court. In this way, the concept of “overhang seats”, were constitutionalized under the new title of “adjustment seats” by the latest amendments to the Code (21st February 2013). By this new regulation, the proportion between the parties’ number of second votes and the seats in the Federal Parliament was carried out as it was set forth in the Constitution. Another important change brought up by the regulation was that the replacement of a person who ceases to be a member of Parliament for any reason (death, resignation etc.) with the follow up candidate of the same party. In the previous regulations, these members would not be replaced. 

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