The upcoming election in Germany is of great importance not only to the Germans but also to the rest of Europe. Germany is one of the economic powers in the continent and any major political changes have an impact beyond the country’s borders. The German Federal election is scheduled to be held on Sunday, September 22, 2013 and hundreds of seats in the 18th Bundestag are to be filled.
Contending parties
Contending for the top rank is Angela Merkel of the CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union). She was elected as Chancellor in the last federal election in 2009. Not far behind is the FDP (Free Democratic Party) which was represented by Guido Westerwelle who was elected as the Vice-Chancellor. The last federal election was considered to be the toughest for the SDP (Social Democratic Party) when its candidate, Frank-Walter Stienmeier backed-off and stated he wanted to be the opposition leader in the Bundestag.
Representing the SDP in this year’s election is Peer Steinbruck. He is not new in politics since he served under Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2009 as the German Federal Minister of Finance. Steinbruck is one of the top contenders in the upcoming election and is hoped to bring SDP a huge win.
On the other side of the track is Rainer Bruderle. He has been part of German politics since the 80’s and was for a time appointed as the Federal Minister for Economics and Technology during Angela Merkel’s second term. After being promoted as FDP chairman in May 2011, he resigned as Federal Minister for Economics and Technology and focused on his task as the party’s new leader.
The electoral system in Germany
The electoral process in Germany is based on a structure called mixed member proportional system. The idea of this scheme is that voters are given the right to make two votes. The first vote is for a specific member of the Bundestag while the other one is for the party. The Bundestag has a certain number of seats that can be occupied. However, a party can exceed the number of the allotted seats in their party if ever the votes they gain are more than what they are entitled to. These seats are referred to as overhang seats.
There have been a lot of controversy in the past regarding the proportional aspect being affected by having the overhang seats, reforms have been made and adapted but it was only later on when all the four factions in the Bundestag agreed that the number of seats shall be increased as long as the so called overhang seats is compensated. The agreement was passed and enacted into law and is going to be adapted in the 2013 Federal Elections.
Expert view
The 2013 German Federal Elections is gathering much attention and experts have noted uncommon characteristics, with reference to Germany’s political history. According to political scientist Mazen Hassan from the University of Cairo, he was very surprised not about the number of electoral paraphernalia posted and hanged in the streets of Germany but with the message and content. Hassan commented that the content of the posters were not as aggressive as he thought it would be.
Photo Credit: The Reichstag building in Berlin is the site of the German parliament (Bundestag)
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google+
LinkedIn
Email