2022 Lower Saxony state election
The 2022 Lower Saxony state election will be held on 9 October 2022 to elect the 19th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The current government is a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Minister-President Stephan Weil. Background. Following the 2017 state election, the incumbent red-green coalition government of minister-president Stephan Weil was 2 seats short of a majority in the Landtag. Due to FDP leader Stefan Birkner ruling out any coalition with SPD or Greens and the Greens ruling out any coalition with CDU and  FDP, the only option for a majority government was a grand coalition of SPD and CDU, considering no party wanted to form a coalition with the AfD. On the 22nd of November 2017 Stephan Weil was reelected as minister-president receiving 104 out of 137 votes as the head of a grand coalition. Electoral system. The Landtag of Lower Saxony is elected using mixed-member proportional representation. Its minimum size is 135 seats. Of these, 87 are elected in single-member constituencies, and the remainder are determined by party lists. Voters have two votes: the "first vote" for candidates within  each individual constituency, and the "second vote" for party lists. There is an electoral threshold of 5% of second vote to qualify for seats. Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method, with additional overhang and leveling seats provided to ensure proportionality. The normal term of the Landtag is 5 years. Parties. The table below lists parties currently represented in the 18th Landtag of Lower Saxony.