Electoral reform in Germany

Electoral reform in Germany refers to efforts to change the voting and election laws in this formerly bifurcated nation. During the Weimar Republic period, Germany had a system of proportional representation. A new electoral system was established by the Parliamentary Council in 1949. The system was created by the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany - the West German Constitution. At first, each voter had only vote to apply to district and national PR allocation. In 1953, the system was changed so that each voter has two votes, a personal vote and a party vote. Germany's system is sometimes referred to as the original mixed member proportional system. This system was intended to be provisional, but it has remained mostly the same to this day, despite attempts in the 1960s to switch to a first past the post system influenced by Great Britain. Germany's system has one of the best-known examples of a legal threshold.