Everything You Need to Know About Germany’s Complex Election Process

After a tense contest in France and an upset in the U.K., German voters are heading to the polls to decide whether to give Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term. The leader of the EU’s dominant country faces Social Democrat Martin Schulz, among others, and should she win, will have to negotiate with other successful parties to create a governing coalition.

Here’s how voters will go about choosing the next German government.

Voting for Parliament

It’s more complex than in many other parliamentary democracies. Voters in 299 districts across Germany will cast a dual ballot on election day to pick members of the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag. The first vote elects the local representative, the second is for a party.

The second-vote result—as a percentage—is the main focus on election night because it determines the share of seats each party receives. Parties that take less than 5 percent nationwide (or fewer than three seats by direct election) are excluded, and the shares of the other parties is recalculated accordingly.

Each party apportions second-vote seats to its lawmakers by going down a list drafted by party officials. They join the directly-elected representatives in the Bundestag in Berlin. While Germany’s parliament has at least 598 members, the final number of seats isn’t fixed.

Here is what happened in the 2013 federal election.

One thing to look out for is the allocation of extra Bundestag seats, which could decide which parties can form a coalition. When a party’s share of the local-representative vote exceeds its percentage of the party vote, that results in extra seats, known as overhang mandates. To avoid distorting the result of the party vote, other parties are then compensated with so-called leveling mandates. That’s why the Bundestag ballooned to 631 seats after the last election.

Forming a government and electing a chancellor

The party or bloc that takes the most seats has a mandate to form a government. If none has a majority, talks on forming a coalition ensue. Once a coalition agenda is agreed, the Bundestag elects the chancellor. After the last election in 2013, Merkel needed nine weeks to seal a coalition deal on policies and Cabinet posts.

If Merkel wins on Sept. 24, she’ll match former chancellors Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, both Christian Democrats like her, as the only leaders elected to four terms.

Polls suggest Merkel is on track to win re-election, maintaining Germany as Europe’s pillar of stability. But with two additional parties expected to win seats in parliament, building a coalition government after the election may be more difficult than in the past.