German election process

Here is a brief guide to the German election process:

Voters

Citizens 18 or older may vote and run for office. Voters elect a Federal Assembly during the national election every four years. Each voter casts two votes:

Voting generally takes place between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on election day, but casting ballots by mail is also possible and increasingly popular.

Bundestag

The Federal Assembly, known to Germans as the Bundestag, is the lower house in Germany's bicameral parliamentary system. It is the country's main legislative body. Its 598 deputies are elected for four-year terms.

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The seats in the Bundestag are filled by a mixed system of direct voting and proportional representation.

A party's percentage share of the second vote -- for lists of candidates provided by each party -- determines how many seats it holds. But if it wins more directly elected seats than its percentage share would allow, more seats are created, expanding the number beyond the normal 598 total.

A party is allowed to sit in the Bundestag only if it has received at least 5 percent of the votes cast in the second ballot. But there is an exception -- if a party manages to get three or more deputies directly elected, it is allowed into parliament even if its share of the vote is less than 5 percent nationally.

The Bundestag must convene its first session no later than 30 days after the election.

A coalition government is normally formed if none of the parties represented in parliament wins an absolute majority of votes. A coalition consists of two or more parties represented in parliament. Before formally agreeing to a coalition government, the parties negotiate to define the new government's priorities. Coalition governments have been a hallmark of postwar Germany.

Chancellor

The federal chancellor -- who leads the executive federal government and appoints federal ministers -- is elected by a simple majority of the Bundestag.