Zum Reformbedarf bei der Personalwahl in den Wahlkreisen: Anmerkungen zur umstrittenen Wahlrechtsänderung

Abstract

In March 2023, the German Bundestag passed legislation to reform the electoral law with the votes of the governing coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP to prevent the parliament from growing beyond its regular number of seats . Contrary to an initial draft bill from January 2023, the base mandate clause (Grundmandatsklausel) was also abolished, not only overhang seats and compensatory seats . This amendment, which was included in the bill at short notice, reduces the electoral chances of smaller parties with regional strongholds . It therefore prevented support from the Left party and any conceivable agreement with the CDU/CSU . Passing an electoral system into law with only a simple parliamentary majority calls for particular attention that the new system is equally fair for all parties . The impression that tactical political considerations may have influenced the governing parties jeopardizes the acceptance of this controversial electoral law reform . The abolishment of the base mandate clause impairs the democratic principle of representing the political will expressed in an election . This major legislative change is neither justified by the logic of the new electoral system, nor is it directly related to the declared aim of reducing the number of seats in the Bundestag . Without comparable compensation the electoral reform remains open to constitutional challenge . The reform refrains from clarifying the legislative role of an electoral system combining personal and proportional representation . The disputes about overhang seats and the base mandate clause shows, however, that personal representation within the electoral system is in need of reform .