Germany's President Signs Reform On Shrinking Parl't Seats To 630 Into Law - Reports

Germany's President Signs Reform on Shrinking Parl't Seats to 630 Into Law - Reports

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th June, 2023) German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has signed an electoral reform approved by the Bundestag that would limit the number of seats in the Parliament from 736 to 630, German media reported on Thursday.

The president has signed the electoral law reform aimed at reducing the size of the Bundestag, which may go into effect, the Zeit newspaper reported, citing the president's office.

The Bundestag adopted the reform in mid-March in a 400-to-261 vote with 23 abstentions.

During federal parliamentary elections in Germany, each voter has two votes: one for a directly elected candidate and another one for a party list candidate. It means that each of the country's 299 Constituencies elects its own candidate directly by a simple majority vote and at least another 299 seats in parliament are going to candidates on party lists.

Under the current system, if a party wins more seats via direct vote than it gets under the party list vote, it could keep these extra seats, but other parties receive additional seats to ensure that the proportional vote is accurately reflected in the Bundestag. A party could also obtain representation in parliament if it wins at least three direct seats, even despite failing to reach the 5% threshold of the party list vote.

The reform proposes to set a constant number of lawmakers by eliminating the extra seats, meaning that not every direct constituency winner will eventually make it to the parliament.

The new legislation will also remove the so-called three-winner option so each party will need to secure 5% of the party vote to create a parliamentary group.

Criticism comes from the parties that see themselves as mostly affected by the reform. Alexander Dobrindt, the leader of the Christian Social Union opposition Bavarian regional faction in the Bundestag, whose party tends to win most of the direct seats in Bavaria, called the reform "an act of disrespect for voters and democracy."

CSU chief Markus Soeder stated that the new law would be challenged in the German Federal Constitutional Court "in the coming months."

The new law is "the biggest blow" to democracy in decades, according to Jan Korte, a lawmaker of The Left Party, which fell short of 5% support during the 2021 election but won three direct seats and thus managed to establish a parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

The election reform in Germany has been widely discussed for many years, with all parties agreeing on the necessity to reduce the parliament's size but having different approaches to the issue. With 736 seats, the Bundestag is now the world's second-largest parliament after the National People's Congress in China.