1998 Lower Saxony state election

1998 Lower Saxony state election

← 1994 1 March 1998 2003 →
All 157 seats in the Landtag of Lower Saxony 79 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	4,314,932 (73.8%) 0.0%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Gerhard Schröder Christian Wulff Party SPD CDU Greens Last election 81 seats, 44.3% 67 seats, 36.4% 13 seats, 7.4% Seats won 83 62 12 Seat change 2 5 1 Popular vote 2,068,477 1,549,227 304,193 Percentage 47.9% 35.9% 7.0% Swing 3.6% 0.5% 0.4%
Results for the single-member constituencies
Minister-President before election Gerhard Schröder SPD Elected Minister-President Gerhard Schröder SPD

The 1998 Lower Saxony state election was held on 1 March 1998 to elect the members of the 14th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The incumbent Social Democratic Party (SPD) government led by Minister-President Gerhard Schröder was returned with an increased majority. Schröder was subsequently re-elected as minister-president.

Schröder took the election as a test run for a potential federal election in September. He said that if the SPD received less than 42 percent of the vote, he would rule out a bid to become the party's chancellor candidate. Achieving 47.9 percent of the vote, he later announced his (successful) candidacy and went on to form the first federal SPD-led government since 1982.^[1]