Right to Nominate Candidates, Notification of Participation
(1) Nominations of candidates may be submitted by parties and by persons eligible to vote in accordance with section 20.
(2) Parties which have not been continuously represented by at least five representatives in the German Bundestag or in a Landtag since the last election to that assembly on the basis of nominations made by the party itself may only submit nominations as parties if they have given notification of their participation in the election to the Federal Returning Officer in writing not later than 6 p.m. on the ninety-seventh day before the election and have been recognised as parties by the Federal Electoral Committee. Such notification must include the name under which the party intends to participate in the election. It must bear the personal handwritten signatures of at least three members of the national executive committee, including the chairperson or his or her deputy. If a party does not have a national executive committee, the executive committee of the party's highest-level organisation takes the place of the national executive committee. The party's written statutes and written programme as well as proof that the executive committee has been duly appointed in accordance with the statutes must be enclosed with the notification. As a rule, proof of party status in accordance with section 2 subsection (1), first sentence, of the Political Parties Act is to be enclosed with the notification.
(3) The Federal Returning Officer must examine the notification pursuant to subsection (2) immediately upon receipt. If the Federal Returning Officer identifies any deficiencies in the notification, he or she will immediately notify the executive committee and request it to correct remediable deficiencies. After expiration of the notification period, deficiencies may only be corrected in notifications which are otherwise valid. A notification is not deemed valid if
1. the form or deadline prescribed in subsection (2) has not been observed,
2. the name of the party is not stated,
3. the valid signatures required under subsection (2) and the documents to be submitted with the notification are missing, unless such documents cannot be submitted in time due to circumstances beyond the party's control,
4. the executive committee members’ names and particulars have not been adequately supplied such that the members’ identities cannot be established.
No deficiencies of any kind may be corrected after the decision on the recognition as a party. The party's executive committee may appeal to the Federal Electoral Committee against orders issued by the Federal Returning Officer in proceedings concerning the correction of deficiencies.
(4) The Federal Electoral Committee confirms as binding for all electoral bodies not later than the seventy-ninth day before the election
1. which parties have been continuously represented by at least five representatives in the German Bundestag or in a Landtag since the last election to that assembly on the basis of nominations made by the party itself,
2. which associations, having given notification of their participation pursuant to subsection (2), must be recognised as parties for the election; a two-thirds majority is necessary to refuse an association recognition as a party for the election. The confirmation must be announced by the Federal Returning Officer in the meeting of the Federal Electoral Committee. It must be made public.
(4a) A party or association may lodge a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court against a confirmation pursuant to subsection (4) preventing it from submitting nominations within four days of the announcement. In such case the party or association must be treated by the electoral bodies as a party entitled to submit nominations until a decision has been taken by the Federal Constitutional Court, at the latest until the end of the fifty-ninth day before the election.
(5) A party may submit only one constituency nomination in each constituency and only one Land list in each Land.