In Germany, voting is underway to decide to decide who will govern the eurozone’s largest economy. It will decide the composition of the next Bundestag, the country’s lower house of parliament. Around 59 million Germans are eligible to vote in a snap election. Polling stations close at 10:30 pm Indian Standard Time today. The election was scheduled for September this year, but a snap election was triggered by the collapse of the current ruling coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party last year.

It takes a majority of the 630 seats in the Bundestag to form a stable federal government. A total of 4,506 candidates are in the fray for 299 constituencies. Meanwhile, the four major parties vying for voter support are the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), Olaf Scholz’s SPD, the Greens, and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

In Germany, voters do not directly elect the chancellor. Instead, they vote for members of parliament, who then select the chancellor. Germany’s electoral system is a mix of direct and proportional representation. Voters cast two ballots. The first vote elects a local constituency representative, and the second supports a political party, determining the proportional distribution of seats in the Bundestag. The Bundestag has 630 seats under the country’s electoral law, with 299 directly elected and the remaining 331 allocated proportionally based on party votes. After the vote, the ballots will be counted to determine the number of seats each party secures.