German Christian Democrats win by-election in Dresden

Sunday, October 2, 2005

This article is part of the series
Germany
German federal elections 2005
Prelude
Election Day
Aftermath
Background

The Christian Democrats (CDU) of Angela Merkel have won the by-election in Dresden and gained one additional overhang seat in the Bundestag. A by-election or bye-election is a special election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between general elections.

The CDU candidate Andreas Lämmel received 37.0% of the first votes, his Social Democratic contender Marlies Volkmer won 32.1% and the candidate of The Left, Katja Kipping, earned 19.2%.

The SPD performed better at the second election, winning 27.9%, followed by the CDU with 24.4%, the Left with 19.7%, the Free Democrats with 16.6%, and the Greens with 7.1%.

The CDU had actually urged supporters not to vote for them with their second vote because of a bug in Germany's voting system too many votes would have caused them to lose a seat.

Nevertheless, the by-election caused the shifting of one seat to another state. Cajus Julius Caesar (sic!), of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia lost his seat to Anette Hübinger, also of the CDU but from the Saarland.

The complete result of the 2005 German federal election can be seen here.

Sources