2012 Elections in Germany

[jimrtex]

So, as expected by all who can and did read (read the 2008 court verdict and the new election law, that is), a number which does not include many government politicians or any political journalists, Angela Merkel's election law is even more unconstitutional than the old one.

The court did its utmost to save her face - it did not octroy a new election law of its own making (though it said it would do so if there's no new law by spring 03) and it did not rule Überhangmandate unconstitutional per se - but because the journos understand nothing of the matter and did not expect the verdict, they are failing to notice that. Unanimous verdict btw.

octroy 

[jimrtex]

It's not my fault English didn't borrow quite all latino-franco-internationalese terms in existence, Jim.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oktroyieren

We have to pay extra to use such words.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/octroy

Do you have a link to the supreme court decision(s)?   Are there any practicable solutions? 

[jimrtex]

I'll probably be adding to this, but I want to make sure it isn't lost.

Do you have a link to the supreme court decision(s)?

2012
2008

So the constitution does not specify the use of MMP?   The English translation reads:

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I was reading the Google translation of the decisions, so I'm probably missing nuances.    But it appears that the court didn't like overhang seats, and chose to parse "general", "direct", "equal", "secret", and "whole people" in an activist way.

Was the 2008 decision in direct response to the 2005 delayed due-to-candidate-death election in Dresden, where it was quite visible that a second vote for CDU would not secure an additional seat nationally, but in sufficient numbers, could switch it to Saxony eliminating an overhang seat.  So CDU supporters had an incentive to use their second vote for another party, and non-CDU supporters had an incentive to use their second vote for CDU. ??

Why was the switch to Sainte Lague made in 2005?   Was that in response to a court decision or some other reason?  The decision said that the overhang problem was not materially alleviated by the switch, and it sounds like it was unrelated in any case?

Why did the NPD intervene in the present case?  Is it related to the 5% threshold?  IIUC, the decision says that the 5% threshold is OK, because voters know that there is the potential for their vote to be discarded, so they aren't being denied equal representation.

What is meant by „Berliner Zweitstimmen“ ("Berliner second vote") at Paragraph 142?

Why does Google translate:

"Der Zuteilungsdivisor ist so zu bestimmen, dass insgesamt so viele Sitze auf die Landeslisten entfallen, wie Sitze zu vergeben sind."

as

"The divisor is determined such that a total of as many seats on the regional lists of accounts, such as seats are up for grabs."

but if you eliminate parts of the sentences it switches to "allocates" or "awards".   I thought that "up for grabs" was idiomatic?