Any decisions and measures directly affecting the electoral procedure may only be contested by means of the legal remedies provided by the Federal Elections Act and the Federal Electoral Regulations or the European Elections Act and the European Electoral Regulations (e.g., appeals against the rejection of constituency nominations by the constituency electoral committee, appeals against the rejection of Land lists by the Land electoral committee, complaint about incorrect and incomplete voters’ registers, appeals against decisions made by municipal authorities, appeals to the Federal Electoral Committee against instructions given by the Federal Returning Officer) and by way of the scrutiny procedure in accordance with the Law on the Scrutiny of Elections.
In accordance with the provisions of the Law on the Scrutiny of Elections, the responsibility for deciding on the validity of the elections to the German Bundestag and the European Parliament in the Federal Republic of Germany shall rest with the German Bundestag. A complaint against that decision may be lodged with the Federal Constitutional Court.
The scrutiny procedure shall be carried out only after an objection has been lodged. The objection shall be lodged with the German Bundestag not later than two months after the day of the election. Any single or group of persons entitled to vote and, in their respective official capacities, the Federal Returning Officer, each Land returning officer and the President of the German Bundestag may lodge a written objection. Reasons for the objection must be stated. There were 163 objections at the 2009 Bundestag Election and 54 at the 2009 European Election. An appeal against decisions made by the German Bundestag in the scrutiny procedure may be lodged with the Federal Constitutional Court in accordance with Article 41 (2) of the Basic Law. The member whose membership is being contested is entitled to lodge an appeal, as is any person entitled to vote if his or her objection has been rejected by the German Bundestag, provided that the person is supported by at least a hundred persons entitled to vote or a group consisting of at least one tenth of the members of the German Bundestag – for European elections by at least eight members of the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany. Complaints must be lodged within two months after the decision has been taken by the German Bundestag.
Legal bases
Bundestag election: Article 41 of the Basic Law (GG); Section 49 of the Federal
Elections Act (BWG); Law on the Scrutiny of Elections (WPrüfG); Section 13 no. 3, Section 48 of the
Federal Constitutional Court Act (BVerfGG)
European election: Section 26 of the European Elections Act (EuWG); Law on the Scrutiny of
Elections (WPrüfG), Section 13 no. 3, Section 48 of the Federal Constitutional Court Act
(BVerfGG)
Last update: June 2011
