1962 North Rhine-Westphalia state election
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All 200 seats in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia 101 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 8,188,988 (73.4%  3.2 pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results for the single-member constituencies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1962 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 8 July 1962 to elect the 5th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. The outgoing government was a majority of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Minister-President Franz Meyers.
The CDU lost its majority with a decline of four percentage points to 46%, but remained the largest party by a small margin. The opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) saw a corresponding gain of four points and won 43%. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) remained steady on 7%. The CDU subsequently formed a coalition with the FDP, and Franz Meyers continued as Minister-President.
The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation and had a term of four years. 150 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and fifty 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 that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats. Overhang seats were not compensated.
Background
In the previous election held on 6 July 1958, the CDU won a landslide victory and took an absolute majority of both votes and seats. The SPD also achieved a swing in its favour, while the FDP and other minors parties suffered losses. The outgoing SPD-led coalition lost its majority and was replaced by a majority government of the CDU led by Franz Meyers.
Parties
| Name | Ideology | Lead candidate |
1958 result | |||
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| Votes (%) | Seats | |||||
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands |
Christian democracy | Franz Meyers | 50.5% | 104 / 200 | |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands |
Social democracy | Heinz Kühn | 39.2% | 81 / 200 | |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei |
Classical liberalism | Willi Weyer | 7.1% | 15 / 200 | |
