At stake in this election:

• 603 seats in the Federal Assembly (Bundestag)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Horst KOEHLER *
• Head of Government: Chancellor Gerhard SCHROEDER
• Assembly: Germany has a bicameral Parliament (Parlament) consisting of the Federal Council (Bundesrat) with 69 seats and the Federal Assembly (Bundestag) with 603 seats.

* The President is elected by indirect vote by the Federal Convention to serve a 5-year term. The Federal Convention includes all members of the Federal Assembly and an equal number of delegates elected by the state parliaments.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by indirect vote to serve a 5-year term.
• In the Federal Council (Bundesrat) 69 members are ex officio by regional legislatures*. In the Federal Assembly (Bundestag), 299 members are allocated by popular vote through a mixed-member proportional system to serve 4-year terms and 299 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.**

* There are 16 multi-member districts (magnitude ranging from 3 to 6), each of which corresponds to one of the Lander (states). Each state elects a regional assembly, which elects a regional government, a delegation of which represents the Land in the Federal Council. Members' terms depend on that of the Land they represent.

** Each voter has two votes. In each single-member district, the first vote counts toward the election of a plurality winner. Each Land also represents a multi-member district. The second vote determines outcomes in the MMDs. Within each Land, a party is entitled to a share of seats proportional to its share of second votes. Seats at the MMD/compensatory level are allocated to parties from closed lists to make each party's overall seat share (compensatory seats + SMD seats) proportional to its Land-wide vote share. To qualify for compensatory seats, a party must win either 5 percent of second votes nation-wide or at least 3 SMD seats. Because it is possible for a party to win more SMD seats than its share of second votes otherwise would allow ("overhang mandates"), the size of the compensatory tier can change, and with it the size of the Bundestag.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Christian Democratic Union / Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU)
  • Leader: Angela MERKEL (CDU) / Edmund STOIBER (CSU)
  • Seats won in last Federal Assembly election: 0
• Party: Social Democratic Party / (SPD)
  • Leader: Franz MUENTEFERING
  • Seats won in last Federal Assembly election: 0
• Party: Free Democratic Party / (FDP)
  • Leader: Guido WESTERWELLE
  • Seats won in last Federal Assembly election: 0
• Party: Left Party****
  • Leader: Lothar BISKY (PDS) and Klaus ERNST (WASG)
  • Seats won in last Federal Assembly election: 0
• Party: Alliance '90/Greens
  • Leader: Claudia ROTH and Reinhard BUETIKOFER
  • Seats won in last Federal Assembly election: 0
• Party: Others
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in last Federal Assembly election: 0

**** The Left Party is an alliance of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which won 2 seats in the last election, and the Electoral Alternative Work and Social Justice (WASG).

Last Parliamentary election:

• The last parliamentary election was held on September 22, 2002.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 82,469,422 (2005)
• Registered Voters: 61,870,711 (September 2005)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 42,086,157 (2005)

·         Is Germany a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)

·         Has Germany ratified CEDAW: Yes (10 July 1985)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 195 (German Bundestag) following the 2005 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 6 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Germany a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has Germany ratified CRPD: Yes (24 February 2009)

·         Population with a disability: 12,370,416 (est.)