Home > 3.2 Proportional systems > Report on Electoral Systems - Overview of available solutions and selection criteria
 
 
 
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Paragraph 73
 

Under this system, each elector has two votes. The first vote is designed to elect half therepresentatives of the Bundestag in single-member constituencies. The second enables the total number of mandates attributed to the various parties to be determined on a proportional basis at national level. Those mandates are then distributed between the various Länder in proportion to the votes obtained by the lists in those Länder. The number of seats attributed as a result of the first votes is subtracted from the total number of seats allocated to each party in the Länder. If a party obtains more seats with the first votes than it obtains in the proportional vote, the seats gained in this way are kept. As can be seen, such a system may resemble a preferential vote within a party. The advantage of this method of distribution is that it enables members to be designated directly while ensuring proportional representation in the assemblies. However, there are risks of manipulation as Pierre Martin points out: “in this two-vote system, there is nothing toprevent a party from not putting forward official candidates in the single member ballot and allowing them to stand as independents (…) In that case, it could, in practice, obtain a substantially higher number of direct seats while benefiting to the maximum from the offsetting mechanism”.