Further advice on participating in elections to the Bundestag in general is available on this site.
As reported by the Federal Returning Officer, representative electoral statistics will be compiled for the election to the 17th German Bundestag on 27 September 2009 as for former Bundestag elections. Voter turnout and the casting of votes by age, sex and Länder will be determined in well above 2,900 polling districts selected at random. The secrecy of the ballot is ensured for the individual voters in these polling districts, too. First results of the representative electoral statistics for the 2009 Bundestag Election will be available in January 2010.
More information on the representative electoral statistics for the 2009 Bundestag election are provided in this leaflet - only available in German.
On 10 December 2008, the Federal Cabinet decided to recommend the date of 27 September 2009 for the election of the 17th German Bundestag to the Federal President. On 4 January 2009, the Federal President signed the Order on the 2009 Bundestag Election on the recommendation of the Federal Government.
The election to the 17th German Bundestag will be held on 27 September 2009.
The date for a Bundestag election is determined by the electoral term and, more detailed, by the period prescribed by law.
Re-elections are held between 46 months (at the earliest) and 48 months (at the latest) after the current electoral term has begun. If the electoral term of the Bundestag is terminated early, there have to be re-elections within 60 days after the decision has been taken to dissolve the Bundestag (Article 39 paragraph 1 of the Basic Constitutional Law). There have been three early re-elections to date: in 1972, 1983 and 2005.
The electoral term of the 16th German Bundestag started on 18 October 2005. Consequently, the 2009 Bundestag Election would have to be held between 19 August and 18 October 2009, provided that the Bundestag is not dissolved early.
Approximately nine months before the election, the Federal President determines the date for the Bundestag election in consultation with the Federal Government. Election day has to be on a Sunday or a public holiday (Section 16 of the Federal Elections Act).
Irrespective of the date of the election, the elections to the assemblies of party delegates may be held at the earliest 29 months after the electoral term of the Bundestag has begun, for the next Bundestag election this would be from 19 March 2008. The elections of candidates may take place 32 months after the electoral term has started, this means from 19 June 2008 at the earliest (Section 21 paragraph 3 sentence 3 of the Federal Elections Act).
