1981 East German general election

none East Germany legislative 99.2% 0.6pp 1976 East German general election 1976 yes 1981 06 14 1986 East German general election 1986 List of members of the seventh Volkskammer List of members of the eighth Volkskammer All 500 seats in the Volkskammer Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R1220-401, Erich Honecker (cropped).jpg Erich Honecker Socialist Unity Party of Germany National Front 127 250px Results of the election. Chairman of the Council of Ministers Willi Stoph Socialist Unity Party of Germany Chairman of the Council of Ministers after election Willi Stoph Socialist Unity Party of Germany General elections were held in East Germany on 14 June 1981. 500 deputies were elected to the Volkskammer, with all of them being candidates of the single-list National Front. 679 Front candidates were put forward, with 500 being elected and 179 becoming substitute deputies. This was the first election where East Berlin's Volkskammer members were directly "elected". Until then, East Berlin's Volkskammer members (66 in 1976) were chosen indirectly by the city government, the Magistrate of East Berlin, though since 1976, they had the same rights as regular Volkskammer members. For the purpose of the 1981 election, five new multi-member constituencies were set up in East Berlin that elected between 6 (Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg) and 11 (Berlin-Marzahn, Berlin-Lichtenberg) deputies. Three Politburo members (Alfred Neumann, Joachim Herrmann and Konrad Naumann) switched constituencies to be elected as first-placed candidates in East Berlin constituencies. At its first session on 25 June, the Volkskammer re-elected Willi Stoph as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, while Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the ruling Socialist Unity Party, was also re-elected Chairman of the Council of State. Like all East German elections before the Peaceful Revolution, this election was neither free nor fair. Voters were only presented with a closed list of candidates (pre-approved by the SED Central Committee Secretariat) put forward by the National Front. The list predetermined an outcome whereby the SED had both the largest faction in the Volkskammer and a majority of its members, as almost all of the Volkskammer members elected for one of the mass organizations were also members of the SED (in this election, all but 4 out of the 165 mass organization Volkskammer members were SED members). While voters could reject the list, they would have to use the polling booth, the use of which was documented by Stasi informants located at every polling site, and had to cross out every name, as "Yes" and "No" boxes were removed after the 1950 election. Abstaining from voting was also seen as oppositional and punished. While legally permissible according to East German election laws, widespread election monitoring was not done out of fear for repression until the 1989 local elections.https://www.aufarbeitung-berlin.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Dokumente/Publikationen/Broschuere_Wahlen-in-der-DDR.pdf Wahlen in der DDR Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship de 2025-12-04https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYplfGBMRas MitBeStimmen: Wahlen in der DDR: So unterschiedlich sind Demokratie und Diktatur 2022-08-08 Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung Brand 2025-12-04 YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc1bpYTj6r4 Wahlfälschung bei der DDR-Kommunalwahl 1989 - Der Anfang vom Ende FAKT 2019-05-21 MDR Investigativ 2025-12-04 YouTube Results List of members of the eighth Volkskammer File:1963–1981 Volkskammer.svg National Front 9 Socialist Unity Party of Germany 12235515 9 127 0 Free German Trade Union Federation 68 0 Christian Democratic Union 52 0 Liberal Democratic Party of Germany 52 0 National Democratic Party of Germany 52 0 Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany 52 0 Free German Youth 40 0 Democratic Women's League of Germany 35 0 Cultural Association of the GDR 22 0 Against 16613 0 2878 12352263 IPU References Inter-Parliamentary Union: HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION RESULTS - Germany Richard Felix Staar. Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe. Fourth Edition. California: Hoover Institution Press. 1982. p. 109. General Category:Elections in East Germany East East Germany East Germany