1998 Lower Saxony state election

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 that 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.

Parties
The table below lists parties represented in the 13th Landtag of Lower Saxony.

Election result
! colspan="2" | Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! Seats % ! colspan=8| ! align=right colspan=2| Total ! align=right| 4,314,932 ! align=right| 100.0 ! align=right| ! align=right| 157 ! align=right| 4 ! align=right| ! align=right colspan=2| Voter turnout ! align=right| ! align=right| 73.8 ! align=right| 0.0 ! align=right| ! align=right| ! align=right|
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left | Social Democratic Party (SPD)
 * align=right| 2,068,477
 * align=right| 47.9
 * align=right| 3.6
 * align=right| 83
 * align=right| 2
 * align=right| 52.9
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left | Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
 * align=right| 1,549,227
 * align=right| 35.9
 * align=right| 0.5
 * align=right| 62
 * align=right| 5
 * align=right| 39.5
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left | Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
 * align=right| 304,193
 * align=right| 7.0
 * align=right| 0.4
 * align=right| 12
 * align=right| 1
 * align=right| 7.6
 * align=right| 12
 * align=right| 1
 * align=right| 7.6
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left | Free Democratic Party (FDP)
 * align=right| 209,610
 * align=right| 4.9
 * align=right| 0.5
 * align=right| 0
 * align=right| ±0
 * align=right| 0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left | The Republicans (REP)
 * align=right| 118,975
 * align=right| 2.8
 * align=right| 0.9
 * align=right| 0
 * align=right| ±0
 * align=right| 0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left | Others
 * align=right| 64,450
 * align=right| 1.5
 * align=right|
 * align=right| 0
 * align=right| ±0
 * align=right| 0
 * align=right| 0
 * align=right| ±0
 * align=right| 0
 * }