Right to Nominate Candidates, Notification of Participation
(1) Nominations of candidates may be submitted by parties and, in accordance with Article 20, by persons eligible to vote.
(2) Parties which have not been continuously represented by at least five representatives in the German Bundestag or in a Landtag (state parliament) since the last election on the basis of their own nominations may only submit nominations as parties if they have given notification of their intended participation in the election to the Federal Returning Officer in writing not later than the ninetieth day before the election and have been recognized as par-ties by the Federal Electoral Committee. Such notification must include the name under which the party intends to participate in the election. It must be signed personally and by hand by at least three members of the national executive committee, including the chairman or his deputy. If a party does not have a national executive committee, the executive commit-tee of the party's highest-level organization shall take the place of the national executive committee. The party's written statutes and written program as well as proof that the executive committee has been duly appointed in accordance with the statutes shall be enclosed with the notification.
(3) The Federal Returning Officer must examine the notification pursuant to Paragraph
(2) immediately upon receipt. If he finds faults in it, he shall immediately notify the executive committee and demand it to rectify the faults that can be corrected. After expiration of the submission period for notification, only faults in otherwise valid notifications may be rectified. A notification shall not be deemed valid if
1. the form or deadline prescribed in Paragraph (2) has not been observed,
2. the name of the party is not stated,
3. the valid signatures required under Paragraph (2) and the documents to be submitted with the notification are missing, unless such documents cannot be submitted on time due to circumstances beyond the party's control,
4. the members of the executive committee have not been adequately designated, so that their identities cannot be established.
Once the decision has been made on the recognition of an association as a party, no action may be taken to rectify faults. The party's executive committee may appeal to the Federal Electoral Committee against orders issued by the Federal Returning Officer in proceedings concerning the rectifying of faults.
(4) The Federal Electoral Committee shall confirm as binding for all electoral bodies not later than the seventy-second day before the election
1. which parties have been continuously represented in the German Bundestag or in a Landtag since the last election by at least five members nominated by the party itself,
2. which associations, having given notification of their participation pursuant to Paragraph (2), shall be recognized as parties for the election. A two-thirds majority is necessary to refuse an association recognition as a party for the election.
(5) A party may submit only one constituency nomination for each constituency and only one Land list for each Land.
