[1] The election resulted in SPD winning an absolute majority, so Björn Engholm chose to govern alone without coalition.

In the state elections on September 13, 1987, the CDU under Prime Minister Uwe Barschel lost the absolute majority it had held since 1971 with 42.6 percent of the votes cast and a loss of 6.4 percentage points,[2] and for the first time since the state elections in 1958 it was behind the SPD, which achieved 45.2 percent of the votes under its top candidate Björn Engholm.

[a] Due to the Barschel affair, Meyer refused to vote for a CDU candidate, thus paving the way for new elections.

The election was influenced by the results of the committee of inquiry into the machinations launched by the State Chancellery against the SPD's top candidate Engholm.

According to the knowledge available at the time, a large part of the machinations, some of which were illegal, were the work of Uwe Barschel.