Secret election of the head of government in parliament

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In Germany are leaders of the Federation and the countries through covert vote in Parliament selected. In international comparison, this procedure is a special way. After several spectacular, inexplicable votes, the rule has been heavily criticized for practical and theoretical reasons since the 1970s.

Voting booths for covert voting

history

The rule of secret voting for political offices dates from the time of pre-parliamentary council meetings. The members of the councils (senates) of free imperial cities had been elected secretly for centuries. However, many persons endowed with competencies were also appointed by the princes . Exceptions were the presidents of parliament and most of the rectors of universities, who were elected secretly as early as the 19th century. Since the middle of the 17th century there has also been an imperative that the papal election is secret. According to the historian and political scientist Theodor Eschenburg , the tradition of secret voting was uncritically adopted into modern parliamentarism and also applied to the election of the head of government: “No great intellectual effort has been made to examine the secret electoral process in these cases and to determine whether it is necessary justify. It was taken for granted. "

In the parliament of the emerging German Empire of 1848/1849 , the Frankfurt National Assembly , secret votes were frowned upon. They wanted voters to know what and for whom their MPs had voted. That was recorded in the protocol.

Legal basis

For the Bundestag and for eight of the eleven state parliaments of the old federal states (before 1990), the secret election of the head of government is only laid down in the parliament's rules of procedure. For the other federal states, including all five new ones (since 1990), it is anchored in the respective state constitution. Votes on heads of government after motions of no confidence are also hidden, except in Berlin , Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland , where the state constitutions require a roll-call vote in the event of a vote of confidence.

For the confidence of the Chancellor , the negotiation mode is not regulated by law. In contrast to the election of a chancellor and the vote of no confidence, Parliament has created the customary right of roll-call voting , the clearest form of open voting. The juxtaposition of secret and name voting in one and the same elected office (Federal Chancellor) has been described as a remarkable "inconsistency" in the technical literature on constitutional law. This is also conspicuous since the vote of no confidence and the question of confidence appear in succession both in the Basic Law (Art. 67 and 68) and in the Bundestag's rules of procedure (Art. 97 and 98).

Reason

The central argument in Germany for the use of secret voting, also when determining the head of government, has always been that it strengthens the freedom of the MPs. According to Article 38 of the Basic Law , they are "not bound by orders and instructions and only subject to their conscience." The difference to factual agreements (e.g. on laws), which are also fundamentally open in Germany, is justified by the fact that "personal relationships "Would be less" burdened "in a secret ballot. This view is confirmed by the undisputed secret election of the parliamentary presidium . Since this is primarily about internal parliamentary affairs, as in an association, further cooperation should not be unnecessarily burdened by the disclosure of personal favor or resentment.

International comparison

Parliament of Sweden (Riksdag) with light indicator of each vote (to the right of the flag under the large screen)

In states that have adopted the parliamentary form of government of the English Westminster system , the parliament decides on the head of government through votes of confidence and no confidence. These are mostly open. In states that, like Germany, have a different parliamentary system of government , such as Sweden , Finland , Poland , Austria and Italy , all votes on the head of government, such as elections, questions of confidence or motion of no confidence, are always open.

Criticism from the political side

Walter Seuffert , member of the Bundestag 1949-1967 and Vice-President of the Federal Constitutional Court 1967-1975, referred to the members of parliament as representatives who have received an order ( mandate ) from the voter (client). From this it follows that "a secret of the representative to his client about the mandate exercise is in principle incompatible with the concept of mandate." It makes sense that a representative can decide freely, but not that he is allowed to do so secretly.

On the occasion of the mysterious election of Ernst Albrecht as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony in 1976, Norbert Gansel , member of the Bundestag 1972–1997, insisted that such votes should not be secret. Also with regard to the Bonn vote of no confidence of 1972, which had been decided by the Stasi via dark channels , as only became apparent many years later (from 2000), Gansel wrote: “What Bonn [1972] went through will become today [1976] suffered in Hanover: speculation on defectors, the triumph of cowardice in parliament, the big hour of informers in the parliamentary groups, the provoked break in the coalition, the impending incapacity to govern. ”On the occasion of the election of the Federal Chancellor in 1994, Gansel published his demand again.

Criticism from the scientific side

According to Theodor Eschenburg , the secret vote on the head of government contradicts an important basic principle of democracy, namely “that the voters must be able to control such an election. But that is only possible with a public vote. "

According to Winfried Steffani , it is an important principle of parliamentary democracy that the MPs put into practice the mandate given by the electorate to elect the head of government.

In 2009, on the occasion of mysterious election results in the election of Christine Lieberknecht as Prime Minister in Thuringia , and also with reference to the re-election of Heide Simonis in Schleswig-Holstein in 2005, which failed for unclear reasons , Frank Decker again emphatically abolished secret voting in the election of Heads of government called for. He also pointed out that the increase in the number of parties represented in parliament since 1980 had increased the likelihood of tight and unstable majorities and with it the risk that previous promises to the voters would be broken “under the protective cover of secret elections”.

literature

  • Hans Rudolf Buschmann and Heribert Ostendorf , The secret vote in parliament, postulate or relic? Zeitschrift für Rechtssppolitik (ZRP), 1977, Vol. 10 (7), Beck, Munich, pp. 153–156. ISSN  0514-6496 , ZDB -ID 200145-7 .
  • Walter Seuffert , On Secret Votes and Elections in Parliaments. Lower Saxony. Landtag, Hanover 1978, 26 pp.
  • Carmen Thiele , Voting Types , in: Same: Rules and procedures for decision-making within states and associations of states. Investigations under constitutional and municipal law as well as European and international law. Springer, Berlin [et al.] 2008, pp. 481-520. ISBN 978-3-540-78994-9 (also: Frankfurt (Oder), Univ., Habil.-Schrift, 2007).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pictures of the modern voting booths in the German Bundestag: online: please enter in the search field: voting booth
  2. ↑ a b Theodor Eschenburg : Just an old braid? According to the experiences in the Lower Saxony state parliament. The "hidden ballots" could be disclosed. In: Die Zeit February 13, 1976. online
  3. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart : German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850 . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1977, ISBN 9783770050901 , pp. 489-493.
  4. ^ Manfred Friedrich, The parliamentary government system in the German federal states , in: Yearbook of the public law of the present. New episode. Edited by Gerhard Leibholz , 1981, JöR 30, Mohr Siebeck, 707 pages, p. 203. ISBN 978-3-16-644332-4 ; Constitutions of the federal states (all online).
  5. ^ Manfred Friedrich, The parliamentary government system in the German federal states , in: Yearbook of the public law of the present. New episode. Edited by Gerhard Leibholz , 1981, JöR 30, Mohr Siebeck, 707 pages, p. 203. ISBN 978-3-16-644332-4
  6. ↑ So Schröder applies for a vote of confidence - parliamentary groups agreed on a roll-call vote , In: Die Welt from November 15, 2001, 2nd para.
  7. ^ Hans Meyer , The position of parliaments in the constitutional order of the Basic Law , in: Hans-Peter Schneider , Wolfgang Zeh (Ed.): Parliamentary Law and Parliamentary Practice in the Federal Republic of Germany: A Handbook, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1989, 1924 Pp. 117-163 (122: footnote 30). ISBN 3-11-011077-6
  8. ↑ Rules of Procedure of the Bundestag on the vote of no confidence (Section 97) and the question of confidence (Section 98). ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundestag.de
  9. ↑ Carmen Thiele : Voting types , in: Same: Rules and procedures of decision-making within states and associations of states. Investigations under constitutional and municipal law as well as European and international law. Springer, Berlin [et al.] 2008, p. 490.
  10. ↑ Open vote on head of government in parliament (Riksdag) in Sweden: “A new government is formed,” section “The Riksdag votes on the speaker's proposal,” Paragraph 2 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: Der Archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.riksdagen.se
  11. ↑ Open vote on head of government in parliament in Finland: “Election of the Prime Minister,” Paragraph 2 .
  12. ↑ Open vote on the head of government in parliament (Sejm) in Poland: "Sejm sessions," section "Voting," paragraph 2 .
  13. ↑ Open vote on the head of government in parliament (Nationalrat) in Austria, according to Art. 74 (1) of the constitution ( memento of the original from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in conjunction with Section 82 (4) of the National Council's rules of procedure . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bka.gv.at
  14. ↑ Open vote on the head of government in parliament in Italy, according to Article 94 of the Constitution (in English) .
  15. ↑ Walter Seuffert : Voting secret for dark men? The MP between freedom of conscience and voting mandate. In: Die Zeit, September 24, 1976. online
  16. ^ Norbert Gansel : No more secrecy. In: Stern (1976) 5, January 22, 1976, p. 20.
  17. ↑ Norbert Gansel: Six comments on tomorrow's election for Chancellor. A plea against hidden ballot papers and for open controversy. In: Sozialdemokratischer Pressedienst 49 (1994) 217, November 14, 1994, p. 1 f.
  18. ^ Winfried Steffani , Parliamentary and Presidential Democracy. Structural Aspects of Western Democracies. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1979, 358 pages, p. 89. ISBN 3-531-11476-X .
  19. ↑ Frank Decker : Abolish the secret ballot! In: Berliner Republik, 11 (2009) 6 online , and in: Die Zeit November 4, 2009 online .