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1984 West German presidential election

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1984 West German presidential election

← 1979 23 May 1984 1989 →
 
Nominee Richard von Weizsäcker Luise Rinser
Party CDU Greens
Electoral vote 832 68

President before election

Karl Carstens
CDU

Elected President

Richard von Weizsäcker
CDU

An indirect presidential election (officially the 8th Federal Convention) was held in West Germany on 23 May 1984. Though not term limited, incumbent Karl Carstens elected not to seek a second term. His Christian Democratic Union instead nominated Richard von Weizsäcker, the governing mayor of West Berlin. The Greens, who were represented at the Federal Convention for the first time, nominated author Luise Rinser. The SPD and FDP elected not to nominate candidates. Weizsäcker won the election with 80% of the vote on the first ballot.

Composition of the Federal Convention

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The president is elected by the Federal Convention consisting of all the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of delegates representing the states. These are divided proportionally by population to each state, and each state's delegation is divided among the political parties represented in its parliament so as to reflect the partisan proportions in the parliament.

By party By state
Party Members State Members
CDU/CSU 525 Bundestag 520
SPD 426 Baden-Württemberg 77
FDP 47 Bavaria 94
Greens 39 Berlin 15
Independents 3 Bremen 6
Total 1040 Hamburg 13
Hesse 46
Lower Saxony 64
North Rhine-Westphalia 141
Rhineland-Palatinate 32
Saarland 9
Schleswig-Holstein 23
Total 1040

Source: Eine Dokumentation aus Anlass der Wahl des Bundespräsidenten am 18. März 2012

Results

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Candidate Parties Votes %
Richard von Weizsäcker CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP 832 80.0
Luise Rinser The Greens 68 6.5
Abstentions 117 11.3
Invalid 11 1.1
Not present 12 1.2
Total 1,040 100
Source: Bundestag

References

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