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Technicians during conversions in the plenary hall of the Bundestag in January: Target size 598 seats, currently 736 members
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
The parties agree on the analysis: the Bundestag has too many members – 736 since the elections last September. However, there is disagreement on the question of how the number of parliamentarians can be reduced to at least close to the standard size of 598 seats to get.
Now three MPs from the traffic light parties – Sebastian Hartmann (SPD), Till Steffen (Greens) and Konstantin Kuhle (FDP) – have presented reform plans.
Hartmann described the draft as a "personal proposal" by the three MPs, which was to be presented to the Bundestag's electoral law commission for discussion on Thursday.
The initiators hope that the legislative process will start after the summer break and that the reform will be applied in the upcoming federal elections.
If the plans are implemented, voting rights in Germany would be fundamentally changed.
The aim is that the Bundestag should only have the standard size of 598 MPs from the next election.
Overhang and compensation mandates are to be eliminated.
After the reform, not every candidate who wins first votes in his constituency would be sure to enter the Bundestag.
Another innovation in the proposal is to introduce a substitute voice.
It is intended to enable voters to express their second preference for a direct candidate.
This is intended to prevent constituencies that do not have a member of the Bundestag.
The distribution of seats should continue to correspond to the result of the second vote
According to the proposal of the three MPs, the most important principles in the allocation of mandates should be retained, such as the principle of proportional representation: the proportion of seats in the Bundestag should correspond to the second vote result of a party, the MPs then get into parliament via list places.
In addition, the personal component should be preserved: voters should be able to vote for specific candidates as before.
In order to uphold these principles while at the same time eliminating the overhang and compensation mandates, the proposal provides for a new mechanism: This should then take effect via the newly introduced substitute vote if the mandate can no longer go to the constituency candidates who were first placed after the first votes.
An example:
A party is entitled to five mandates in a federal state according to the share of second votes.
However, six candidates are ahead in their constituencies after first votes.
In this case, the one of the top six who got the lowest share of votes in his constituency would not be allowed to take the mandate.
In such a case, however, another candidate from the same constituency should be sent to the Bundestag.
In order to determine this, the new replacement votes mechanism should come into play.
With the substitute vote, the voters should be able to indicate a second preference when choosing the constituency candidate.
These substitute votes should only play a role if the first-placed candidate in a constituency does not get a chance because the overhang mandates have been abolished.
Then, in his place, that candidate will be sent to the Bundestag who – in absolute numbers – has received the most first votes plus the substitute votes in a constituency.
In this case, first votes and substitute votes are simply added, and the candidate with the highest number receives the mandate.
The reforms would not make the right to vote any easier.
And it is questionable whether the proposal by the three MPs will be able to gain a majority.
From the Union faction – so far often benefiting from the current electoral law due to many compensation and overhang mandates – there is already a clear contradiction.
The coalition is planning to devalue the constituency idea and stir up disenchantment with politics, said the parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei (CDU), the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".
In addition, it was "very bad style" for the traffic light to anticipate the deliberations of the electoral law commission.
fek/ulz/AFP