An indirect presidential election (officially the 11th Federal Convention) saw the former Social Democrat minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia defeat Christian Democrat Dagmar Schipanski and the nonpartisan academic Uta Ranke-Heinemann, who had been endorsed by the Party of Democratic Socialism.
Composition of the Federal Convention 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 statePartyMembersStateMembersSPD565Bundestag669CDU/CSU547Baden-Württemberg82Greens96Bavaria98PDS65Berlin27FDP56Brandenburg23Republicans7Bremen5DVU2Hamburg13Total1338Hesse47Mecklenburg-Vorpommern16North Rhine-Westphalia143Rhineland-Palatinate33Saarland9Saxony39Saxony-Anhalt24Schleswig-Holstein23Thuringia22Total1338 Source: Eine Dokumentation aus Anlass der Wahl des Bundespräsidenten am 18. März 2012
Results
CandidateNominating partyRound One Round TwoVotesPercentageVotesPercentage Johannes Rau SPD, Greens 657 49.1 690 51.6 Dagmar Schipanski CDU/CSU 588 43.9 572 42.8 Uta Ranke-Heinemann Independent (endorsed by PDS) 69 5.2 62 4.6
References