As already said, the Venice Commission and ODIHR do not express preference for any electoral system as long as they do not go against international standards. There is no international standard on electoral thresholds. However, the assessment of the electoral threshold is subject to a proportionality test and this test needs to take into account other features of the electoral system. In general, lowering the electoral threshold offers the potential benefit of increasing political pluralism and aligning the mandates closer to the voters’ will by minimising “wasted” votes.27 It is worth noting that in 2011, the Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the five per cent barrier clause in force for the 2009 elections to the European Parliament (7th electoral term) violated the principles of equal suffrage and of equal opportunities of the political parties. The same was ruled for local elections.28 The change under consideration appears in the field of discretion of the national authorities especially given the decisions of the Constitutional Court on the matter. The Venice Commission and ODIHR acknowledge that keeping the Grundmandatsklausel would go against the main idea of the primary role of the “second vote”, so its abolition appears as consistent with the priority given to votes cast for the proportional part of the election.