District (Bavaria)

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According to the Bavarian electoral system, a constituency is a sub-area of ​​an electoral area in the elections to the Bavarian state parliament and the Bavarian district days . Each constituency is represented in the state parliament or district assembly by a directly elected member.

Legal basis

The electoral districts have their legal basis in Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Bavarian Constitution and in Article 5, Paragraph 2 of the Bavarian State Election Act. Accordingly, each district and each independent municipality forms a constituency. After it is determined in the state electoral law that the population of an electoral district should not deviate from the average population of the electoral districts in the respective constituency by more than 15 percent upwards or downwards and a new delimitation must be made if there is a deviation of more than 25 percent, the principle can the congruence may be deviated in favor of the principle of equal choice. For the 2013 state election, only 21 of the 90 electoral districts therefore corresponded exactly to a district or an independent city. The area of ​​a district can therefore be intersected by a district boundary, but the area of ​​a municipality belonging to a district cannot (Article 5, Paragraph 2, Clause 2, Clause 2 of the Bavarian State Election Act). In large cities, on the other hand, the division of electoral districts is not tied to city district boundaries.

Also of importance in Bavaria are the informally concluded second-vote agreements , which are concluded by two direct candidates from the same party and increase the chances of both direct candidates to vote if they recommend each other as a second-vote candidate in addition to the first-vote campaign for themselves.

Constituency and Bavarian constituencies

In contrast to the other federal states, there are no uniform state-wide lists for the state elections in Bavaria , but district lists. Therefore, in the Bavarian state elections, there is an initial subdivision of the electoral area into sub-areas that correspond to the districts and are referred to as “ constituencies ”. The voting circles are their further, finer subdivisions. For the 2013 state election, the seven Bavarian constituencies include the following number of constituencies:

Constituencies and constituencies

According to Article 5, Paragraph 6 of the Bavarian State Election Law, electoral districts are further subdivided into electoral districts. This next smaller breakdown has no significance for the award of mandates, but is essential for the practical handling of the election: The polling station in which the voter votes results from the voting district; the ballot papers are counted separately according to voting districts and the voting district is thus also the smallest geographical unit according to which election results can be recorded and statistically evaluated.

Equivalents to the constituency in other elections

A constituency in Bavaria is comparable in function to the constituency in the state elections in other federal states. In the elections to the German Bundestag there are no electoral districts, here the parties also compete in Bavaria with a uniform state list, and the electoral area is divided into Bundestag electoral districts, as in the rest of the country, which systematically correspond to the electoral districts and in their size between the electoral districts and the Constituencies of the Bavarian elections.

Constituencies as strongholds

“Strongholds” are constituencies that show clearly above-average results for a party. The highest share of first votes in Bavaria that a direct candidate achieved in the state elections in 2008 was achieved with 54.1% in constituency 121 (Mühldorf am Inn) by Marcel Huber (CSU). The highest total share of votes was found for the CSU with 53.7% in district 401 (Bamberg-Land), for the SPD with 33.7% in district 104 (Munich-Milbertshofen), for the Greens with 23.5 percent in district 116 ( Freising), for the FDP with 15.9% in constituency 127 (Starnberg) and for the free voters with 21.8% in constituency 302 (Cham). In the latter constituency, the SPD achieved its worst result nationwide with 10.4% of the total votes.

Constituencies with several MPs

The respective constituency or direct mandate is won by only one candidate, but unsuccessful candidates from the constituency may enter the state parliament via their party's constituency list. As a result, many circles are looked after by more than one MP. The constituency from which the highest number of members of the state parliament comes was Munich-Giesing in 2008 with five successful applicants - here, via the constituency list, the candidates from the SPD, FDP, Greens and Free Voters obtained a mandate in addition to the first-time winner of the CSU. In six other electoral districts a comparable situation exists with four MPs (direct candidate and three list candidates).

See also

Web links