Election Name: | 1970 North Rhine-Westphalia state election |
Country: | North Rhine-Westphalia |
Type: | parliamentary |
Ongoing: | no |
Previous Election: | 1966 North Rhine-Westphalia state election |
Previous Year: | 1966 |
Next Election: | 1975 North Rhine-Westphalia state election |
Next Year: | 1975 |
Seats For Election: | All 200 seats in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia |
Majority Seats: | 101 |
Election Date: | 14 June 1970 |
Turnout: | 8,739,940 (73.5% 3.0pp) |
Candidate1: | Heinrich Köppler |
Party1: | Christian Democratic Union of Germany |
Last Election1: | 86 seats, 42.8% |
Seats1: | 95 |
Seat Change1: | 9 |
Popular Vote1: | 4,020,186 |
Percentage1: | 46.3% |
Swing1: | 3.5pp |
Candidate2: | Heinz Kühn |
Party2: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
Last Election2: | 99 seats, 49.5% |
Seats2: | 94 |
Seat Change2: | 5 |
Popular Vote2: | 3,996,808 |
Percentage2: | 46.1% |
Swing2: | 3.4pp |
Candidate3: | Willi Weyer |
Party3: | Free Democratic Party (Germany) |
Last Election3: | 15 seats, 7.4% |
Seats3: | 11 |
Seat Change3: | 4 |
Popular Vote3: | 478,420 |
Percentage3: | 5.5% |
Swing3: | 1.9pp |
Map Size: | 400px |
Government | |
Before Election: | First Kühn cabinet |
Before Party: | SPD–FDP |
Posttitle: | Government after election |
After Election: | Second Kühn cabinet |
After Party: | SPD–FDP |
The 1970 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 14 June 1970 to elect the 7th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Heinz Kühn.
The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) returned as the largest party after falling to second in 1966, winning a narrow plurality of 46.3%, with a lead of 0.2% and one seat over the SPD. The FDP suffered losses and declined to 5.5%. Overall, the incumbent coalition retained a reduced majority of 105 seats. However, a number of FDP deputies opposed to cooperation with the SPD refused to vote for Kühn in the investiture vote on 28 July; he was re-elected with the minimum majority of 101 votes out of 200. There were 95 votes for CDU leader Heinrich Köppler and four abstentions.[1] In October, three members of the FDP faction defected to the new party National Liberal Action, leaving the government with a narrow majority of 102 seats.[2] Nonetheless, it completed its full term.
The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 150 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and fifty were then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.
See main article: article and 1966 North Rhine-Westphalia state election. In the previous election held on 10 July 1966, the SPD became the largest party for the first time in the state, coming just short of a majority with 49.5% and 99 seats. The CDU was reduced to second place with 43%, and the FDP improved to 7.4%. The incumbent CDU–FDP coalition was renewed, but collapsed in November after a grand coalition took power federally. The FDP subsequently agreed to a coalition with the SPD, and Heinz Kühn was elected Minister-President by the Landtag.
The table below lists parties represented in the 6th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Name | Ideology | Lead candidate | 1966 result | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes (%) | Seats | |||||||
bgcolor= | SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany | Social democracy | Heinz Kühn | 49.5% | |||
bgcolor= | CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | Christian democracy | Heinrich Köppler | 42.8% | |||
bgcolor= | FDP | Free Democratic Party | Classical liberalism | Willi Weyer | 7.4% |