In practice, these provisions do not normally operate, though it may happen. For example, in the 1994 German elections, the PDS only obtained 4.4% of the votes but won three seats directly in the eastern Länder and therefore took part in the national apportionment, giving it 30 seats. In 2002 however it obtained 4% of the vote but only two seats directly, and therefore did not receive any more. This is a real threshold effect, since the third seat in 1994 in fact represented 28.