Federal Convention
The Federal Convention is a constitutional body of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its sole
function is electing the President of the Federal Republic of Germany (Article 54 of the Basic
Law).
Pursuant to Article 54 paragraph 4 of the Basic Law, the Federal President shall be elected
for a five-year term; re-election for one consecutive term shall be permitted. For that purpose,
the Federal Convention shall meet not later than thirty days before the term of office of the
Federal President expires. Since 1979, the day of election has traditionally been May 23rd, the day
on which the Basic Law was promulgated in 1949. The time and the place are set by the President of
the German Bundestag, who is responsible for preparing, holding and for the follow-up of the
Federal Convention meeting. Since 1994 the Federal Convention has convened in the Reichstag
building in Berlin.
The Federal Convention is composed of
- "members by virtue of position" (the members of the Bundestag including overhang mandates)
and
- "elected members" (an identical number of representatives of the Länder elected by the Länder
parliaments according to the principle of proportional representation).
At the present time, the German Bundestag has 622 members, with an additional 622 members from
the Länder the Federal Convention would consequently be composed of 1,244 members altogether.
However, this figure may still go down if a member with an overhang mandate should resign from
the Bundestag and his or her seat could therefore not be filled by a successor.
The details of the election are laid down in Article 54 of the Basic Law and in the Federal
Law on the Election of the Federal President by the Federal Convention. In accordance with Section
2 (1) of that Law, the Federal Government shall determine “on time” how many of their members the
individual Länder parliaments shall send to the Federal Convention and publish the result in the
Federal Law Gazette. The number of Bundestag members as specified by law at the time of
decision-making shall be used to ascertain these figures, as shall the relation of the latest
official population figures of the Länder. Foreign citizens shall not be accounted for.
The President of the Federal Statistical Office has to supply the relevant up-to-date
population figures and on the basis of proportional representation calculate the number of members
attributable to the individual Länder.
The members from the Länder shall then be designated by election in the individual Länder
parliaments according to Section 4 of the Federal Law on the Election of the Federal President by
the Federal Convention and according to the rules of procedure applying in the Länder parliaments.
The seats in the Federal Convention are be distributed on the basis of lists containing proposals
made by the parliamentary groups represented in the respective Land parliament. The number of seats
in the Federal Convention attributable to the individual lists is distributed according to d'Hondt’s
method of maximum numbers. If there are identical maximum numbers, a seat is assigned by lot to be
drawn by the president of the respective Land parliament. Whoever has the right to stand for
election to the German Bundestag may also stand for election to the Federal Convention. This means
that everyone who is a German citizen as defined in Article 116 of the Basic Constitutional Law and
has reached the age of eighteen years may be elected a member of the Federal Convention. So the
parliamentary groups of the Länder parliaments do not have to restrict their proposals to members
of the Länder parliaments, and having one’s place of residence in the respective Land is not a
precondition for being elected a member of the Federal Convention either.
Any member of the Federal Convention may propose candidates for the presidential election.
Any German entitled to vote in Bundestag elections in accordance with Section 12 of the Federal
Elections Act who is at least forty years of age may be proposed as a candidate.
The Federal President is elected by secret ballot with ballot papers being marked secretly.
In the first and second ballot, an absolute majority is required, i.e. more than half the votes of
the members of the Federal Convention. In the next ballot, the relative majority is
sufficient; whoever receives most votes wins. The elected candidate has to state to the President
of the Bundestag whether or not he or she accepts election. Then the President of the Bundestag
declares the Federal Convention to be ended.
Legal bases
Article 54 of the Basic Law (GG), Federal Law on the Election of the Federal President by the
Federal Convention (BPräsWahlG)
Last update: March 2012
See also:
©2012 The Federal Returning Officer
