In keeping with Section 6 Paragraph 3 of the Political Parties Act, the Federal Returning Officer keeps a collection of political parties’ documents which is available to the public for inspection.
For each party covered this collection contains
• the statutes
• the program
• the names and functions of the members of the executive committee of the party and its Land
branches.
The political parties are obliged to provide the Federal Returning Officer with the above documents.
For a list of the party documents presently kept in the collection of material please refer to the addresses of the parties which have filed documents with the Federal Returning Officer pursuant to Section 6 Paragraph 3 of the Political Parties Act.
Free copies of the documents may be ordered from the Federal Returning Office by anyone who is interested. Party documents sent to the Federal Returning Officer in electronic form are available for free download in PDF format on the website of the Federal Returning Officer.
• download party documents free of charge
• order documents as free printouts
The Act on Political Parties does not provide for a formal and generally binding establishment of the party status by a specifically authorised agency. Only for Bundestag elections, an establishment of the party status by the Federal Electoral Committee is provided for in the cases laid down in Section 18 Paragraph 2 of the Federal Elections Act (for information on the procedure followed when political parties take part in Land Parliament elections please contact the Land Returning Officers). In all other instances, the party status has to be decided upon by the competent authorities and courts in the individual case, for example as regards decisions of the competent tax authorities as to whether membership fees and donations are tax deductible.
