1962 North Rhine-Westphalia state election

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1962 North Rhine-Westphalia state election

← 1958 8 July 1962 1966 →
All 200 seats in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia 101 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	8,188,988 (73.4% 3.2 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Candidate Franz Meyers Heinz Kühn Willi Weyer Party CDU SPD FDP Last election 104 seats, 50.5% 81 seats, 39.2% 15 seats, 7.1% Seats won 96 90 14 Seat change 8 9 1 Popular vote 3,752,116 3,497,179 553,426 Percentage 46.4% 43.3% 6.8% Swing 4.1 pp 4.1 pp 0.3 pp
Results for the single-member constituencies.
Government before election First Meyers cabinet CDU Government after election Second Meyers cabinet CDU–FDP

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.

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.

• "Electoral system of North Rhine-Westphalia". Wahlrecht.de (in German). 15 May 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2023.