Politics of North Rhine-Westphalia

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The politics of North Rhine-Westphalia takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic. The two main parties are the Centre-right Christian Democratic Union and the Centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

North Rhine-Westphalia uses mixed member proportional representation in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia.^[1] Every five years the citizens of North Rhine-Westphalia secretly vote in a general election to elect least 181 members of the Landtag.^[1] First-past-the-post voting determines 128 of the minimum 181 members of the Landtag. The remaining seats available to each party is determine by the party-list proportional representation.^[1] only parties who win at least 5% of the votes cast may be represented in parliament.^[1]