Berlin Treptow – Köpenick (electoral district)

Location of constituency in Berlin

Berlin Treptow – Köpenick is one of the 299 single member constituencies used for the German parliament, the Bundestag. Located in south-east Berlin the constituency was created for the 1994 election. After the 2005 election it was one of just three single member constituencies in Germany to be represented by The Left Party (DL).^[1] The current MP is Gregor Gysi who gained the seat at the 2005 election. Gysi is the former leader of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor party to the East German Communist party.

History and boundaries

The constituency, numbered constituency 85 by the German electoral authorities,^[2] contains the whole of the Berlin borough of Treptow-Köpenick. This borough, a merger of two former boroughs, was created by the 2001 administrative reform. The Treptow and Köpenick areas were combined for the first time for the 1994 election, having previously been in the short lived constituencies of Berlin Friedrichshain – Treptow – Lichtenberg I and Berlin Köpenick – Lichtenberg II. Both predecessor constituencies were only used for the 1990 election and were won by the Social Democratic Party (SPD).^[3]

In both the 1994^[4] and 1998 elections,^[5] the SPD winning margin was 2.8% over the PDS. At the 2002 election, the SPD increased their lead to 9.2%. Under Germany's electoral system, a party must win either 3 constituency seats or poll more than 5% of the vote across Germany as a whole in order to be awarded list seats. The failure of the PDS to win a third constituency here or in other potential seats such as Berlin Pankow or Berlin Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain - Prenzlauer Berg East in 2002 proved crucial to the overall result as it meant the party missed out on 15 list MPs. The 2005 election saw the situation reversed, with the PDS beating the SPD by 7.2%.^[6] In the 2009 election, Gregor Gysi, the candidate of The Left, the successors to the PDS, increased his majority to 23.9%. The CDU took second place with the SPD slipping to third place.

Profile

The number of residents with German citizenship was 96.6%, a figure above the Berlin average of 86.6% and the highest figure for any Berlin constituency.^[7] 28.8% of residents had qualifications which met the requirements for University entry.

Electoral system

Bundestag elections take place using the Mixed Member Proportional system. Voters have two votes, one for a constituency MP and one for a regional list to elect representatives for the whole of Berlin city. Elections for the Treptow – Köpenick constituency take place using the First past the post system.

Results

2009 election

Party		Constituency candidate	Constituency results			List results
Party		Constituency candidate	Votes	% share	+/-	Votes	% share	+/-
	The Left Party.PDS	Gregor Gysi	62,733	44.7	+4.4	47,385	33.7	+5.3
	Christian Democratic Union	Niels Korte	29,193	20.8	+4.3	25,933	18.5	+3.3
	Social Democratic Party of Germany	Karl-Josef Wasserhövel	25,479	18.2	-15.1	27,731	19.7	-16.9
	Alliance '90/The Greens	Peter Groos	10,388	7.4	+3.4	15,419	11.0	+2.7
	Free Democratic Party	Hellmut Königshaus	6,192	4.4	+2.1	11,218	8.0	+2.4
	National Democratic Party of Germany	Udo Voigt	4,079	2.9	+0.4	3,685	2.6	+0.3
	La Rouche Movement	Daniel Buchmann	1,122	0.8	-0.1	510	0.4	+0.1
	Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany	Petra Ilius	397	0.3	+0.3	166	0.1	+0.0
	Independent candidate	Willi Kurt Wende	615	0.4	+0.4
	Pirate Party					4,670	3.3	+3.3
	Animal Welfare Party					2,112	1.5	+1.5
	Republicans					443	0.3	-0.1
	Violets					366	0.3	+0.3
	Ecological Democratic Party					305	0.2	+0.2
	German People's Union					233	0.2	+0.2
	German Communist Party					206	0.1	+0.1
	Social Equality Party					134	0.1	-0.0

source:^[8]

2005 election

Party		Constituency results				List results
Party		Candidate	Votes	% share	+/-	Votes	% share	+/-
	The Left Party.PDS		60,470	40.4	+10.3
	Social Democratic Party of Germany		49,807	33.2	-6.1
	Christian Democratic Union		24,823	16.6	-1.5
	Alliance '90/The Greens		6,051	4.0	-1.1
	National Democratic Party of Germany		3,788	2.5	+0.7
	Free Democratic Party		3,532	2.4	-1.8
	La Rouche Movement		1,333	0.9	N/A

Out of a total electorate of 193,339, the total number of votes cast was 152,302 (78.8%) of which 2,498 votes were invalid.

2002 election

Party		Constituency results				List results
Party		Candidate	Votes	% share	+/-	Votes	% share	+/-
	Social Democratic Party of Germany		57,311	39.3
	The Left Party.PDS		43,924	30.1
	Christian Democratic Union		26,427	18.1
	Alliance '90/The Greens		7,414	5.1
	Free Democratic Party		6,059	4.2
	The Grays – Gray Panthers		1,752	1.2
	National Democratic Party of Germany		2,557	1.8
	Lange		332	0.2

Out of a total electorate of 189,307, the total number of votes cast was 147,762 (78.1%) of which 1,986 votes were invalid.

References

Electoral districts of Berlin in the German Bundestag

2002 election to present	Berlin Charlottenburg–Wilmersdorf Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg–Prenzlauer Berg East Berlin Lichtenberg Berlin Marzahn–Hellersdorf Berlin Mitte Berlin Neukölln Berlin Pankow Berlin Reinickendorf Berlin Spandau–Charlottenburg North Berlin Steglitz-Zehlendorf Berlin-Tempelhof–Schöneberg Berlin Treptow–Köpenick

1994 and 1998 elections	Berlin Charlottenburg–Wilmersdorf Berlin Friedrichshain-Lichtenberg Berlin Hellersdorf-Marzahn Berlin Hohenschönhausen–Pankow–Weissensee Berlin Kreuzberg–Schöneberg Berlin Mitte-Prenzlauer Berg Berlin Neukölln Berlin Reinickendorf Berlin Spandau Berlin Steglitz-Zehlendorf Berlin Templehof Berlin Tiergarten-Wedding-North Charlottenburg Berlin Treptow–Köpenick

1990 election	Berlin Charlottenburg–Wilmersdorf Berlin Friedrichshain-Treptow–Lichtenberg I Berlin Hellersdorf-Marzahn Berlin Hohenschönhausen–Pankow–Weissensee II Berlin-Kreuzberg – Schöneberg Berlin Mitte-Prenzlauer Berg-Weissensee I Berlin Neukölln Berlin Reinickendorf Berlin Spandau Berlin Steglitz-Zehlendorf Berlin Templehof-South-East-Stieglitz Berlin Tiergarten-Wedding-North Charlottenburg Berlin Köpenick-Lichtenberg II

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 06, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.