New voting law in Hesse: D’Hondt trial causes excitement!

New voting law in Hesse: D’Hondt trial causes excitement!

Preparations for the Hessian local elections on March 15, 2026 are in full swing, and there is a lot to discuss. The new seat allocation procedure, the d'Hondt procedure, will be the basis for the allocation of mandates in the municipalities and district councils instead of the Hare/Niemeyer system used so far. This decision, which was made in the state parliament in Wiesbaden on March 27, 2025, has already caused heated debates. While the black-red coalition of CDU and SPD voted for the reform, the opposition factions, including the Greens, the AfD and the FDP, emphatically rejected the amendment.

The switch to the d'Hondt method, which has been frequently used in German electoral law since 1945, raises a number of questions. This divisor method divides the parties' votes by a consecutive count (1, 2, 3, ...) and allocates the seats according to the highest numbers achieved. Critics agree that this electoral methodology tends to favor larger parties. The Marburg constitutional lawyer Hans-Detlef Horn remembers that the procedure can sometimes lead to distortions and endanger electoral equality. He therefore calls for a comprehensive review of the existing electoral law provisions.

Electoral law in transition

The switch from the Hare/Niemeyer method, which has been used in Hesse since 1981 and is based on a different calculation method, to the d'Hondt system has caused great debate among the politically interested public. Under the Hare-Niemeyer method, votes were multiplied and then divided by the number of seats, which in the past allowed for more proportional representation. The d'Hondt system could now lead to only 11 groups being represented in Frankfurter Römer instead of 16, as Interior Minister Roman Poseck (CDU) reports. This could reduce the fragmentation of parliaments, emphasizes Poseck. But many voices warn that this could further reduce the influence of smaller parties, which is perceived as a threat to democracy.

The Federal Constitutional Court also points out that voting rights provisions are not forever harmless. The reactions to the reform are therefore divided: on the one hand there is the government, which wants to improve the functionality of local representation; on the other hand, there are critics who fear that smaller parties will be disadvantaged and are considering legal action. The FDP has already filed a lawsuit against the reform. Your fears are not unfounded. There have been examples in the past where parties achieved worse results than their share of the vote due to the use of the d'Hondt procedure.

The outlook for the local elections

On March 15, 2026, it will become clear whether the risks associated with the d'Hondt procedure will actually materialize. Scientists and election law experts are watching the development with excitement, because the decision of the Hessian State Court, which will be critical for the final implementation of the reform, is viewed as a mathematical challenge. Ultimately, it is important to maintain the balance between larger and smaller parties, while at the same time promoting the functioning of parliaments.

Overall, it remains to be seen how the political structures will develop after the reform and whether voters will actually find a clear, reliable representation of their interests at the ballot box. The coming months promise a lot of excitement and could be decisive for the political landscape in Hesse.