Berlin, Mar 17 (UNI) The Bundestag on Friday adopted an electoral reform that will limit the number of seats in German parliament to 630 from 736 starting from the next legislative term, with opposition parties speaking out against the changes and vowing to challenge them in court.
As many as 400 lawmakers, mostly representing the ruling "traffic light" coalition, voted in favor of the reform, 261 voted against and 23 more abstained.
During federal parliamentary elections in Germany, each voter has two votes: one for a directly elected candidate and another one for a party list candidate. It means that each of the country's 299 constituencies elects its own candidate directly by a simple majority vote and at least another 299 seats in parliament are going to candidates on party lists.