How do Germany’s elections work?

NO ONE CAN quite replace Mutti (“mummy”), as Germans have dubbed Angela Merkel, the country’s chancellor since 2005. But someone will have to try. On September 26th the country holds its quadrennial parliamentary elections. Mrs Merkel will step down once a new government is formed. How will Germany elect its next chancellor and government?

Germany is a federal parliamentary democracy in which the most powerful office is the chancellor. (As head of state, the president officially ranks higher but the role is largely ceremonial.) The country is split into 299 constituencies, but the Bundestag, the lower house of the federal parliament, is made up of at least 598 seats, and usually more. That is because every citizen gets two votes. The first, Erststimme, is used to elect a local MP—roughly one representative for every 250,000 people. These votes are allocated using a first-past-the-post system, similar to Britain’s Parliament, and every winning candidate is guaranteed a seat.