A lesson from German parliamentary elections

The visitors programme itself was meticulously designed to expose us, as much as possible, to adequate information on Germany, its people, culture, industrial and economic development as well as its political process. Our first outing took us to the European Centre for Research on Federalism. This is a research institute at the famous University of […]

The visitors programme itself was meticulously designed to expose us, as much as possible, to adequate information on Germany, its people, culture, industrial and economic development as well as its political process.

Our first outing took us to the European Centre for Research on Federalism. This is a research institute at the famous University of Tubingen. It is multidisciplinary and deals, scientifically and politically, advising with questions of federalism, the position and role of regions and the sub-national level in Europe. This is where the Germany Federalism and its system of Popular Representation were explained to us.

Our next port of call was to Ms Christiane Friedrich, the Returning Officer (equivalent to our Resident Electoral Commissioner) for the State of Baden-Württemberg. Germany is a federation like Nigeria but their electoral system is quite different.

The Election Office at the state level is solely responsible for organizing local elections as well as elections to the Federal Parliament.

All voters are automatically registered by the statistical office. Every citizens address is known and so is his/her date of birth (they are that meticulous). At the approach of election, the office of statistics dispatches notice to all residents of 18 years and above and inviting them to participate in the forthcoming elections. The citizens are also given a choice to indicate whether he/she can go to the polling station or wants to vote by mail. Where one chooses to vote by mail, a ballot paper is dispatched to that person by mail with which he/she will indicate choice and return it by mail.

I was privileged to witness actual election at several polling stations. The process has been made so easy that voters took only an average of 3-minutes at the Polling Station. On arrival at the Polling Station, the person in charge of accreditation inspect the voters “invitation to vote” card to verify that the voter is at the correct station. Upon such verification a ballot paper is issued where the voter goes into the booth to vote and then approaches the ballot box where an officer sits there with a booklet containing the list of all voters who are eligible to vote at the unit and the number that had indicated their interest in voting by mail. The officer will cross-check his booklet and on confirmation allows the voter to slip his ballot into the box. This has happened to over fifty voters in my presence and it took an average of 3-minutes per vote.

Another big surprise: No party agent was at the Polling Station. Of course I asked, the Returning Officer whether the laws allowed for parties to have their agents at the Polling Stations and he answered the affirmative. He went further to explain that the electoral system in Germany is so clean and corruption-free that parties don’t feel the need to send any agents.

Mother of all surprises! The Returning Officer himself is a registered card-carrying member of one of the political parties participating in the election. The bottom line is that Germans have a very strong faith in their electoral system and nobody, not the voters, the parties or the officials does anything that may short-circuit and destroy a system that is working so well for them. Despite all these the actual results are transmitted by a telephone call by this same Presiding Officer to the collation centre.

Polls open at 9 a.m and close at 6 p.m. votes were counted and results declared inside two hours. I asked the Returning Officer about corruption in their electoral system, her reply was curt and short – impossible. I also asked about election related litigations and she told me that she has been a presiding officer for all of 9 years and there has never been any such thing.

This is totally different from our winner-takes-all system where a party can score high percentage of the total votes and still falls short of getting representation in the parliament. In Germany any party that scores a minimum of 5% of total votes is automatically entitled to representation in the parliament. This explains the absence of rancor and violence occasioned by frustration. The number of seats in any Parliament always varies as the final number can only be determined after all votes are counted and percentage scored by all parties are calculated. The ballot paper itself is unnumbered and actually printed on common A4 paper. On it the title of the election, list of parties and the candidates with their academic qualification are all there. A ballot paper is only important if it is dropped in the ballot box.

The Germans jealously guard and vigorously express their political positions on any given issue, be it the economy, environment, education or things that affect their cultural heritage, playing politics of issues. In the particular area I observed, there were three dominant issues during the parliamentary elections, most important of which had to do with environment. It was occasioned by the recent nuclear power disaster in

Japan. It was what led the Environmentalists to win election for the first time, even though they never did in their thirty year existence. The coalition defeated the ruling party that had ruled for sixty years. Other issues include controversy over construction of a rail line and education. I had truly observed democratic election, which was issue-based and for the common good of the citizenry.

Dalhatu; [email protected] , 47, Sharada Industrial Estate, Phase I, Kano