The Convention usually assembles every five years in the Reichstag Building, the exception being if the Federal President’s term of office end prematurely.
Three candidates are in the running for the office of President of Federal Republic of Germany. They are Joachim Gauck, Lutheran pastor and human rights activist, who was proposed by both Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition of Christian Democrats and the liberal Free Democrats as well as by the opposition Social Democrats and the Greens.
The Left party’s candidate is the French-German journalist Beate Klarsfeld whilst the right radical NPD put forward the historian Dr Olaf Rose.
The Federal Convention is convened by the President of the Bundestag, who determines its venue and date, and is also responsible for the preparation and holding of the Convention.
The German Constitution, known as the Basic Law, stipulates that the Federal Convention must meet 30 days before the end of the Federal President’s term of office, at the least.
Members
The Federal Convention consists of all Members of the Bundestag (German Parliament) and an equal number of members elected by the parliaments of the Federal states or the Länder. The current Convention will have 1,240 members.
The number of representatives which the individual Länder may send to the Federal Convention is calculated based on the population of each Land.
Conduct of the election
The Federal President is elected by secret ballot without any prior debate. In theory, any German who is at least forty years old is eligible for election. Candidates may be proposed by any member of the Federal Convention.
If none of the candidates receives an absolute majority, that is, more than half the votes, in the first and second ballots, a third ballot is held. In this case, a relative majority is sufficient: whoever receives the most votes wins. New candidates can also be nominated for the second and third ballots.
By Mellisa Sheriddan, ANA Political Editor &
Musah Ibrahim Musah