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IS DOCUMENTS FERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MABasey168 eбNMENT
68
SECRET
C.P.(49) 53
7TH MARCH, 1949
CABINET
GERMAN ELECTORAL LAW
Memorandum by the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs
COPY NO.
10.31
Present Position
In addition to drafting the Basic Law, the Parliamentary Council at Bonn has produced a draft electoral law for the trizonal area. This action was ultra vires, and the three Military Governors have informed the Parliamentary Council that the Ministers President in the Western Zones should take appropriate steps to prepare the necessary legislation in each Landtage, but that they are free to use the draft electoral law prepared by the Parliamentary Council as a basis for the preparation of a model law to be submitted to the Landtage of the individual Laender for enactment.
Recommendations
2.
(1)
(2)
I recommend to my colleagues:
that they approve the decision of the three
Military Governors to withdraw the preparation of electoral laws for Western Germany from the Parliamentary Council and to entrust it to the various Ministers President and Landtage, who have been told that they may work on the basis of the draft produced by the Parliamentary Council.
that I be authorised to instruct the Military Governor
to use such influence as he can to ensure that as many Laender as possible enact electoral laws which would lead to the adoption of a majority system as opposed to a system of proportional representation.
Background History
3.
On 4th June, 1948, I circulated to my colleagues a paper (C.P.(48) 142) setting out the electoral systems in the Western Zones of Germany and comparing the systems in force in each Zone. That paper made it clear that the electoral laws and machinery were a matter for the individual Laender and that it was neither desirable nor possible to ensure that one system should be adopted throughout Germany. It also pointed out that the electoral systems in all but one of the Laender in the Western Zones already included safeguards against splinter parties. My colleagues will also remember that during the Moscow meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers I made it clear that I was strongly opposed to proportional representation, but that I felt that the electoral system for Germany was one which the GermanPage 138 of488 up and that it would be Pages 38 of 488
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I.