The popularly elected Reichstag was responsible for federal legislation together with the Bundesrat, the upper house whose members were appointed by the governments of the individual states to represent their interests.

Voting rights in Reichstag elections were advanced for the time, granting universal, equal, and secret suffrage to men above the age of 25.

[3] It was to take its place alongside the monarchical-federal executive power of the Bundesrat and the Bundespräsidium – the head of state in the person of the king of Prussia, William I.

The Reichstag was to be given the powers of a popular legislative body customary for the era and was meant to counterbalance both monarchical influences and the particularism of the 22 states that made up the Confederation.

Bismarck's stipulation that there be no pay for deputies was directed primarily against the election of workers' representatives, who would find it financially difficult to run for office.

The territory of the North German Confederation was divided into 297 electoral districts, in each of which one deputy was directly elected by majority vote.

In spite of considerable criticism of the North German Confederation, especially in the territories annexed by Prussia at the end of the Austro-Prussian War, there was no boycott of the elections.

Although the government tried to influence the elections, the results largely reflected the political sentiments of the population and differed little from those of the state parliaments.

The anti-Prussian Saxon People's Party was represented by the two later Social Democratic parliamentarians August Bebel and Reinhold Schraps.

August Bebel later wrote in his memoirs that "the elite of North German politicians and parliamentary luminaries" had been assembled in the parliament.

"[6]It was a fundamental change from the original draft constitution and meant that the chancellor would need to defend and represent his policies to parliament and the public.

Parliament agreed to the ban on deputy pay (Article 32),[6] but because the Reichstag consisted largely of civil servants, it was able to prevent their planned exclusion from the body.

[6] Parliament above all had the right to approve or reject budgets and tax revenues, which gave it a limited means of control over expenses.

[3] Instead of the three-year appropriation that Bismarck wanted, parliament pushed through a budget period of one year, although it did not apply to military spending, the largest item of expenditure.

The Customs Parliament also included 85 deputies from south Germany who were chosen in elections in February and March 1868 in Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, and Hesse under the same electoral law used in the North German Confederation.