Good morning, colleagues.
This is the 20th meeting of the committee and the third day of testimony this week.
We have several guests this morning. They are all appearing by video conference. There are no witnesses in the room with us. They are in Germany and Scotland.
From Germany, we will hear from Joachim Behnke, professor at Zeppelin University in Munich and chair of the Department of Political Science. In 1990, he earned a master's degree in arts, communications, economy and political science from Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. He has worked in the university setting since 1991.
Professor Behnke contributes on a regular basis to reviews on election law and elections in various well-known publications, including the German Financial Times, Der Spiegel and Die Zeit.
In 2011, he testified before the legal parliamentary committee of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, which sought to reform the election law of that region. He also testified before parliamentary committees on the Constitution of Bavaria. He appeared before the German Federal Constitutional Court and spoke about a constitutional challenge to the election law recently passed by the coalition government.
Also with us from Germany today is Professor Friedrich Pukelsheim, a professor of stochastics at the Institute for Math at Augsburg University and chair of the department of stochastics at the university. Professor Pukelsheim's research focuses on the mathematical analyses of electoral systems. He is often invited as a witness to parliamentary committees on electoral law. Professor Pukelsheim is known for having developed an electoral process known as the “new Zurich allocation method”, colloquially referred to as the “double Pukelsheim”, a system used in 2006 during Zurich's council elections.
From England we have joining us today—and please correct me and forgive me if I don't pronounce your last name properly—Mary Pitcaithly.
Is that correct?