In Germany, the state list or state electoral proposal, (
''German'': Landesliste or Landeswahlvorschlag) is the list of candidates of a party for the election to the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
, or the elections to those
state parliaments with
mixed-member proportional representation
Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a type of representation provided by some mixed electoral system, mixed electoral systems which combine local Winner-take-all system, winner-take-all elections with a Compensation (el ...
and for the
European Parliament elections
Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by Universal suffrage, universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after Electio ...
if a party decides on a state rather than a federal list. In contrast to the vote on the candidates of the
constituencies
An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...
, who are elected directly (
Direktmandat), voters can usually only vote on the candidates on the state list as a whole by voting for a party with their second vote. Depending on the distribution of seats in parliament, the corresponding number of
list candidates in the order of the list of the respective party are considered elected.
The possibility of distributing votes to specific candidates on a state list is called
cumulation and
panachage and can change the order. This has been introduced in some
states
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
, such as ,
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
and , but has only been discussed in others.
Almost all candidates from the top spots on the state list, including those from the established, smaller parties, are also candidates in one constituency. This means that they are likely to enter parliament even if they do not win their constituency. This is why established politicians or politicians who are supported by the party for various reasons (age, gender, origin, lateral entrants, etc.) almost always occupy the top spots on the respective state list. If the candidates win the constituency in this case, the candidate on the next spot on the state list who was unable to win a constituency or who did not stand in any constituency is considered.
The state list is drawn up at the party congresses in accordance with the . There are no federal lists (in the sense of nationwide candidate lists) in federal elections. The list places are distributed according to the second vote results in the respective states.
Political parties that are not among the established parties must support their election proposal, i.e. a state list filled with people, by collecting signatures after it has been announced to the . In the case of a
federal election, the minimum number of signatures depends on the number of eligible voters in the state in the last federal election and is a maximum of 2,000. Different provisions apply to elections to
state parliaments. A party that wishes to represent a
recognized minority is exempt from this rule at both federal and state level.
[{{cite web, access-date=2017-07-14 , date=2017 , title=Informationen für Wahlbewerberinnen und Wahlbewerber zur Teilnahme an der Bundestagswahl , url=https://www.bundeswahlleiter.de/bundestagswahlen/2017/informationen-wahlbewerber.html#9a2120b5-d1df-495b-8288-7bbc7c8365da , website= bundeswahlleiter.de]
See also
*
Apportionment (politics)
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a Legislature, legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to Representation (politics), representation. This page presents the general princip ...
*
Electoral system
An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, nonprofit organizations and inf ...
*
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
*
Electoral list
An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...
References
External links
Landesliste, Glossar, Deutscher Bundestag
Party lists
Politics of Germany
German voting rights