Germany has a mixed system electoral system with a proportional purpose. It provides for the election of a first half of elected single member majority in one round, then the election of a second half by proportional multi member ballot.
After World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany transferred power from the President toward the Bundestag and encouraged political majorities to pass legislation. Germany 's current system emphasizes a strong party discipline between the executive and legislative branches.
Germans usually cast two votes: one for a candidate in their constituency and one for a political party. The process is called a personalized proportional representation system. Simply put, Germans vote to decide how the 598 base seats in the Bundestag will be divided among members of Germany 's various political parties.
In practice, the German elector generally has two votes, represented by two columns on the ballot. The first vote is used for the majority one-round election of the representative of the constituency (the one who comes first in the first round is elected). There are 299 constituencies in Germany, so direct votes make up roughly half of the seats in the Bundestag. The second vote - Zweitstimme (second vote) or Landesstimme (vote of the Land) - allocates, according to a proportional distribution, the seats of the body to be elected to the different political parties. In Germany, there is no direct election of a person except at the communal level.