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DOCUMENTS ON GERMANY, 1944-59
in Eastern and Western Germany into believing that all they will have
to do is to gather around one conference table. * * *
So long as Mr. Ulbricht and his friends do not make any serious
effort to give convincing proof that the Soviet Zone state has definitely
adopted a form of constitutional government based on law and order,
the Federal Government, in agreement with the majority of our peo-
ple, cannot but persist in its demand for bona fide guarantees for the
really unhampered carrying out of free elections throughout Ger-
many. The proposal for the setting up of a United Nations Commis-
sion, which is not only to examine the conditions existing for all-
German elections but which is also to work out proposals on which
the reunification of Germany could be based, has been turned down;
this is but one example demonstrating Athat the SED is not prepared
to give such guarantees.
Draft Election Law of the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of'
Germany, February 6, 19521
FEDERAL DRAFT LAW ON THE PRINCIPLES FOR THE
HOLDING OF FREE ELECTIONS TO A CONSTITUENT
GERMAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, APPROVED BY FED--
ERAL LOWER HOUSE ON FEBRUARY 6,1952
ARTICLE I
(I) Free, secret, universal, equal and direct elections for a Con--
stituent German National Assembly shall be held according to the
principles of proportional representation in the four Occupation Zones
of Germany and in Berlin on *    *
(II) The election shall be conducted in accordance with an Election
Procedure which is to include the following regulations:
SECTION 1
(1) All Germans shall be entitled to vote, providing their 20th
birthday falls on or before the day of election and providing they are
not mentally unbalanced or otherwise legally irresponsible. The same
conditions shall apply to candidates for seats except that they must
have completed their 25th birthday on or before the date of election.
(2) Germans within the meaning of this Law shall be considered
to be those who possess German citizenship or those ethnic Germans
who are refugees or expellees with permanent residence in the area
of election, or partners in marriage or descendants of the same.
'Ibid., pp. 44-46. This revised version of the law for an all-German election
procedure
proposed by the Federal Government on October 30, 1951, was approved by the
Federal'
Lower House on February 6 by 292 votes to 29, with 25 abstentions. Introducing
the-
revised draft law in the Federal Lower House, the Federal Minister for All-German
Affairs,
Jakob Kaiser, described it as a "basis for a quasi-diplomatic demarche
with the Occupying-
Powers and the United Nations," rather than being "a law in the
formal sense." On
February 18, 1952, the revised draft law was delivered to the Chairman of
the Allied High
Commission with the request that it be forwarded to the U.S., U.K. and French
Govern-
ments and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Allied High
Commission
was also asked to transmit to the Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission,
General
Vassily I. Chuikov, two copies of the law, one of them for the Government
of the Soviet-
Zone.
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