Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release August 7, 2009
Federal Returning Officer providing information on the occasion of Spiegel Online commentary
WIESBADEN – As a reaction to the commentary entitled “Why the ‘premiere’ of the Federal Returning Officer became a farce” published in the online edition of the German Spiegel journal on 7 August 2009, the Federal Returning Officer states the following:
1. In accordance with Section 18 paragraph 4 number 2 of the Federal Elections Act, the Federal Electoral Committee shall confirm as binding which associations, having given notification of their participation, shall be recognized as parties for the Bundestag election. The decisions are based also on the facts available to the Federal Electoral Committee at the meeting, which have to be substantiated by the political associations. As the law now stands, the question of whether these decisions can be corrected is clear: pursuant to Section 49 of the Federal Elections Act, the only legal remedy which may be used against decisions of the Federal Electoral Committee is an appeal to be lodged within a period of two months after election day. This has been confirmed once again by the Federal Constitutional Court in its recent decision of 31 July 2009 (file reference: 2 BvQ 45/09 with further substantiation).
2. The decision on the appeal lodged by the party “Freie Union“ against the rejection of their Land list in Bayern was taken after intensive discussion at the meeting of the Federal Electoral Committee on 6 August 2009. The result of four votes in favour and four votes against the appeal mirrors the differing interpretations of the legal regulations by the eight members of the Federal Electoral Committee present. According to Section 10 paragraph 1 of the Federal Elections Act, decisions shall be taken by majority vote; in the case of a tie, the chairman shall have the casting vote. In accordance with Section 9 paragraph 2, the chairperson of the Federal Electoral Committee is the Federal Returning Officer.
For further information please contact:
Thomas Riede,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2325,
e-mail: presse@destatis.de