In principle, all students who are eligible to vote in the Student Parliament election may stand as candidates. All members of the student body are eligible to vote.

Members and substitute members of the Election Committee and the Election Review Committee may not stand as candidates.

No. You do not need to have previously worked in a university group, student council or another representative body in order to stand as a candidate.

What matters is that you want to represent the interests of students and contribute to the work of the Student Parliament.

No. You may join an existing list or form a new group together with other students and submit your own electoral proposal.

You may also stand as the only candidate. Each group of students may submit only one electoral proposal in the same election.

Yes. An individual candidacy is also possible, provided that your electoral proposal is supported by the handwritten signatures of at least 20 students who are eligible to vote.

All formal requirements for an electoral proposal must also be fulfilled in the case of an individual candidacy.

Detailed information can be found under “Submit an Electoral Proposal”.

No. Each candidate may be listed on only one electoral proposal in the same election.

When standing as a candidate, you must confirm that you are not standing on another electoral proposal in the same election.

Yes. Candidates remain eligible to vote and may cast their vote at a polling station or by postal vote.

Information on postal voting can be found under “Postal Voting”. The relevant dates can be found under “Dates and Deadlines”.

An electoral proposal contains the persons standing together for election. It may also contain only one candidate.

It includes, among other things:

• the name of the group submitting the proposal,
• the names of the candidates,
• their departments,
• their addresses and email addresses,
• the order of the candidates,
• if possible, a representative and a deputy representative.

Please use the form provided by the Election Committee when submitting the electoral proposal.

1. Choose a name for your electoral proposal.
2. Decide who wants to stand as a candidate.
3. Determine the order of the candidates.
4. If possible, designate a representative and deputy representative.
5. Complete the required form in full.
6. Collect the necessary supporting signatures.
7. Submit the complete electoral proposal in writing and on time.

The form and detailed information can be found under “Submit an Electoral Proposal”. All relevant dates can be found under “Dates and Deadlines”.

An electoral proposal may contain no more than twice as many candidates as there are members of the Student Parliament to be elected.

As the Student Parliament has 13 directly elected voting members, an electoral proposal may contain no more than 26 candidates.

An electoral proposal may also contain only one candidate.

Yes. A candidate may be listed up to three times on the same electoral proposal.

Candidates listed three times are placed before candidates listed twice. Candidates listed twice are placed before candidates listed only once.

For the purpose of the requested gender parity, multiple listings count only once.

• surname and first name or first names,
• department,
• address,
• email address,
• consent to inclusion in the electoral proposal,
• a declaration that the person is not standing on another electoral proposal in the same election.

All information must be complete and unambiguous.

By signing the declaration of consent, you confirm in writing that you agree to being included in the electoral proposal.

Without the required declaration of consent, your candidacy cannot be admitted.

The order should be finalised before the electoral proposal is submitted.

Once the submission deadline has expired, changes are possible only in narrowly defined exceptional cases provided for in the Electoral Regulations. Once the decision on admission has been made, no further changes are permitted.

Every electoral proposal must be personally signed by at least 20 students who are eligible to vote.

This also applies if only one person is standing on the electoral proposal.

We recommend collecting additional signatures. This helps avoid falling below the required minimum if individual signatures are found to be invalid.

All students who are eligible to vote in the election may support an electoral proposal.

Candidates may also sign their own electoral proposal, provided that they themselves are eligible to vote.

No. Each eligible voter may support only one electoral proposal.

If the same person signs several electoral proposals, the relevant signatures are invalid on all of those electoral proposals.

No. The Electoral Regulations require handwritten personal signatures.

A digital list of names, a scanned signature or consent by email does not replace the required handwritten supporting signature.

Please use the form provided and submit the complete documents in writing.

The representative is the main contact person for the electoral proposal in dealings with the election administration.

The representative may make declarations concerning the electoral proposal and is informed if remediable deficiencies are identified. A deputy representative should also be designated.

The representative and deputy representative should themselves stand as candidates or support the electoral proposal by signing it as eligible voters.

Explicitly designating them is recommended so that responsibilities are clearly defined.

An electoral proposal containing only one candidate may also be submitted.

If only one person is proposed and no deputy representative is expressly designated, the Electoral Regulations provide that the first eligible voter who supported the electoral proposal is considered the deputy representative.

The form for submitting an electoral proposal for the Student Parliament election can be found under “Submit an Electoral Proposal”.

There you can also find detailed information on the required information, declarations, supporting signatures and submission procedure.

The electoral proposal must be submitted in writing to the election administration.

The submission location applicable to the election will be officially announced. The Official Election Announcement and the call for electoral proposals are authoritative.

The applicable dates can be found under “Dates and Deadlines”.

No. Simply sending the electoral proposal by email does not replace the required written submission.

In particular, the required handwritten supporting signatures must be submitted in the prescribed form.

No. Submit your electoral proposal as early as possible.

The election administration reviews submitted electoral proposals without delay. Early submission may therefore provide additional time to correct remediable errors before the submission deadline expires.

The election administration reviews electoral proposals without delay for compliance with the requirements of the Electoral Regulations. The representative is informed if remediable deficiencies are identified.

Particularly problematic issues include:

• late submission or failure to comply with the required form,
• too few valid supporting signatures,
• a missing name or designation of the electoral proposal,
• missing declarations of consent,
• candidates who cannot be clearly identified,
• candidates standing on several electoral proposals,
• candidacies of members or substitute members of the Election Committee or Election Review Committee.

The Election Committee decides on the validity and admission of the submitted electoral proposals.

The decision on admission is announced at the meeting of the Election Committee. The persons concerned or their representatives are informed of the decision.

The currently scheduled date can be found under “Dates and Deadlines”.

The public announcement of the admitted electoral proposals includes in particular:

• the list number or order,
• the name or identifying keyword of the electoral proposal,
• the surnames and first names of the candidates,
• the candidates' departments.

Addresses and email addresses are not included in the public announcement.

Yes. The written consent to stand as a candidate may be withdrawn until the submission deadline by means of a written declaration to the election administration.

Once withdrawn, the withdrawal cannot be revoked.

A submitted electoral proposal may only be withdrawn before it has been admitted.

A joint written declaration by the representative and deputy representative is required.

After the submission deadline, amendments are possible only in the exceptional cases expressly provided for in the Electoral Regulations.

Once the decision on admission has been made, no further amendments are possible.

In proportional representation, several electoral proposals compete against one another.

Voters may:

• vote for an electoral proposal as a whole,
• give votes to individual candidates,
• give up to three votes to one candidate,
• distribute votes among candidates from different electoral proposals.

Majority voting takes place if no electoral proposal or only one electoral proposal has been admitted, or if the total number of admitted candidates does not exceed the number of members to be elected to the Student Parliament.

Voters are not restricted to the proposed candidates. Other eligible students may be entered on the ballot paper.

Cumulation, meaning the allocation of several votes to the same person, is not provided for in a majority election.

In the Student Parliament election, proportional representation is used if at least two electoral proposals have been admitted and more candidates are standing in total than there are seats to be filled.

With 13 members to be elected, this generally means at least two admitted electoral proposals with a total of at least 14 candidates.

Electoral proposals already represented in the Student Parliament are first ordered according to the total number of votes they received in the previous election.

The remaining electoral proposals are ordered alphabetically by their identifying keyword. The final order is publicly announced after admission.

Yes. You may campaign for your electoral proposal and your candidates.

Possible campaign activities include:

• posters and flyers,
• social media,
• information stands,
• events,
• personal conversations.

The University's requirements and the rules governing the use of rooms, areas and advertising opportunities must be observed.

Yes. If you wish to display posters on the RPTU campus in Kaiserslautern, you must apply for poster approval in advance.

Approved posters receive the appropriate marking. You should therefore obtain approval as early as possible before putting up your posters.

At the Kaiserslautern campus, poster approval is handled by the Veranstaltungsadministration und Raummanagement (VARM) of RPTU .

The relevant RPTU application must be completed in order to obtain approval.

First, an application for poster approval must be submitted to the responsible RPTU office.

Once approved, the posters receive the appropriate marking. Only then should the posters be displayed on the areas designated or approved for this purpose.

RPTU requires approved posters to be marked accordingly.

You should therefore make sure that your posters have been properly approved and marked before they are displayed.

Use only areas intended for posters or notices, or areas that have been approved by RPTU.

If you are unsure about a particular location, please contact RPTU's Veranstaltungsadministration und Raummanagement (VARM) before displaying any posters.

Poster approval does not automatically mean that every building, wall or other area may be used for posters.

The person submitting the application undertakes to remove the posters no later than four weeks afterwards.

You should therefore decide in advance who will be responsible for removing the posters after the election.

The person or group that applied for poster approval is responsible for removing the posters.

If posters are not removed on time, RPTU may remove them at the applicant's expense.

Apply for approval as early as possible before you plan to begin your election campaign.

If possible, do not wait until the day on which you intend to display the posters. This leaves sufficient time for the application to be processed and for any follow-up questions.

No. During voting, election campaigning is prohibited inside the polling station building, on the building itself and immediately in front of its entrance.

This also applies to posters, flyers and other forms of visible election campaigning.

No. During voting, collecting signatures is also prohibited in the immediate vicinity of the polling station.

All currently scheduled dates relating to candidacy, submission, review and admission of electoral proposals, as well as postal voting and the election days, can be found under “Dates and Deadlines”.

Until the final Official Election Announcement is published, the dates stated there are provided for guidance.

The form for submitting an electoral proposal for the Student Parliament election, together with detailed submission information, can be found under “Submit an Electoral Proposal”.

If you have questions about candidacy, an electoral proposal or the required documents, you can contact the Election Committee or the election administration.

If you have questions about an electoral proposal that has already been prepared or submitted, the representative should contact the election administration whenever possible.