West German presidential election, 1974

West German presidential election, 1974

23 May 1974

Nominee Walter Scheel Richard von Weizsäcker Party FDP CDU Electoral vote 530 498

President before election Gustav Heinemann SPD Elected President Walter Scheel FDP

An indirect presidential election was held in West Germany on 23 May 1974. Though not term limited, incumbent Gustav Heinemann elected not to seek a second term. The government parties (SPD and FDP) nominated Vice-Chancellor Walter Scheel; the Christian Democratic Union nominated Richard von Weizsäcker. Scheel won the election by 32 votes on the first ballot. He served as president until 1979. Weizsäcker would later serve as president from 1984 to 1994.

Composition of the Federal Convention

The President is elected by the Federal Convention consisting of all the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of delegates representing the states. These are divided proportionally by population to each state, and each state's delegation is divided among the political parties represented in its parliament so as to reflect the partisan proportions in the parliament.

By Party			By State
Party	Members		State	Members
CDU/CSU	501		Bundestag	518
SPD	470		Baden-Württemberg	75
FDP	65		Bavaria	91
Total	1036		Berlin	17
			Bremen	6
			Hamburg	15
			Hesse	46
			Lower Saxony	62
			North Rhine-Westphalia	143
			Rhineland-Palatinate	33
			Saarland	10
			Schleswig-Holstein	22
			Total	1036

Source: Eine Dokumentation aus Anlass der Wahl des Bundespräsidenten am 18. März 2012

Results

Candidate	Parties	Votes	%
Walter Scheel	FDP, SPD	530	51.2
Richard von Weizsäcker	CDU/CSU	498	48.1
Abstentions		5	0.5
Invalid votes		0	0.0
Not present		3	0.3
Total		1,036	100
Source: Bundestag

References