West German presidential election, 1984

West German presidential election, 1984

Nominee Richard von Weizsäcker Luise Rinser (right) Party CDU Green Electoral vote 832 68

President before election Karl Carstens CDU Elected President Richard von Weizsäcker CDU

An indirect presidential election was held in West Germany on 23 May 1984. Though not term limited, incumbent Karl Carstens elected not to seek a second term. His Christian Democratic Union instead nominated Richard von Weizsäcker, the Governing Mayor of West Berlin. The Greens, who were represented at the Federal Convention for the first time, nominated author Luise Rinser. The SPD and FDP elected not to nominate candidates. Weizsäcker won the election with 80% of the vote on the first ballot.

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	525		Bundestag	520
SPD	426		Baden-Württemberg	77
FDP	47		Bavaria	94
Greens	39		Berlin	15
Independents	3		Bremen	6
Total	1040		Hamburg	13
			Hesse	46
			Lower Saxony	64
			North Rhine-Westphalia	141
			Rhineland-Palatinate	32
			Saarland	9
			Schleswig-Holstein	23
			Total	1040

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

Results

Candidate	Parties	Votes	%
Richard von Weizsäcker	CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP	832	80.0
Luise Rinser	The Greens	68	6.5
Abstentions		117	11.3
Invalid		11	1.1
Not present		12	1.2
Total		1,040	100
Source: Bundestag

References