Responsibilities of the Federal Returning Officer

The Federal Returning Officer and his deputy are appointed by the Federal Minister of the Interior for an unspecified period of time. In continuation of an old tradition going back to the Reichstag elections, the President of the Federal Statistical Office is regularly entrusted with the tasks of a Federal Returning Officer.

The main responsibilities of the Federal Returning Officer are

to act as an electoral body and as such to prepare and conduct Bundestag elections and European elections, supported by the electoral bodies at Land, constituency and electoral district level. For more detailed information please refer to the paper “Bundestagswahl 2005: Die Aufgaben des Bundeswahlleiters (2005 Bundestag Election: The responsibilities of the Federal Returning Officer)” (PDF, about 80 KB) – only German version available;
to keep the collection of material of political associations pursuant to the Party Law.

The Federal Returning Officer for Bundestag elections and for the election of deputies to the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany has been the President of the Federal Statistical Office, Roderich Egeler, since 1 August 2008.