2012 German presidential election

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18 March 2012

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Nominee	Joachim Gauck	Beate Klarsfeld
Party	Independent	Independent
Home state	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	Berlin
Electoral vote	991	126
Percentage	79.92%	10.16%

President before election

Horst Seehofer (acting)
CSU

Elected President

Joachim Gauck
Independent

Politics of Germany
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An early indirect presidential election (officially the 15th Federal Convention) was held in Germany on 18 March 2012, the last possible day following the resignation of Christian Wulff as President of Germany on 17 February 2012. Joachim Gauck was elected on the first ballot by a Federal Convention, consisting of the 620 members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members selected by the states of Germany based on proportional representation.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

On 19 February 2012, Joachim Gauck was nominated as the joint presidential candidate of the governing coalition (CDU, CSU, and FDP) and the opposition (SPD and Greens).^[5] He also had the support of the Free Voters and the South Schleswig Voter Federation.

Gauck became the first independent candidate to win a presidential election since the end of the Second World War, and the second overall since Paul von Hindenburg, who was elected in 1925 and re-elected in 1932.

^ Cite error: The named reference BBC Quit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "German Presidential Vote Set For March 18". Rferl.org. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
^ "15. Bundesversammlung zur Wahl des Bundespräsidenten – Hochrechnung der Zusammensetzung". Wahlrecht.de. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
^ "German Bundestag: Election of the Federal President". Bundestag.de. 16 February 2007. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
^ "German government, opposition agree on Joachim Gauck as candidate for the country's presidency". Newsday. New York. 19 February 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.