In Germany, all people who are eligible to vote at parliamentary elections (they have to be at least 18 years old) are given a ballot paper with two columns on it: on the left they can mark a cross for their so-called first vote, on the right for their second vote. However, this second vote is not less important than the first, but more. This is where the parties are written down with a list of men and women, the candidates. The more people put a cross next to the name of a party here, the more strongly this party will be represented in parliament. The number of representatives from a particular party who are in parliament is decided according to a special counting system. The strongest party provides the head of government; in Germany, he or she is called the chancellor. So the head of government is not directly elected at parliamentary elections, as many people think. He or she is elected indirectly – by the parliamentary parties that form a majority.
With the first vote in the left-hand column on the ballot paper, voters can directly choose a candidate from their own constituency (electoral district). In Germany, there are about 300 constituencies. Perhaps voters know the candidate personally and hope that he or she will do a lot for their city or village. This "direct candidate” does not have to belong to the same party that a voter has chosen with the second vote. However, only one cross is allowed to be made in each column, otherwise the ballot paper is invalid. There are different regulations for local elections or elections for the Land parliament.
Another piece of information for specialists: the system for parliamentary elections described above is called "personalised proportional representation”. It is a mixture of a simple majority vote system (several candidates stand for election and the one with the most votes wins) and the system of proportional representation (where only parties with their candidate lists stand for election).