Germany's top court ruled Wednesday that changes in the current election law, introduced last year by Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition, is unconstitutional, leaving politicians limited time to draw up a new law before the general election in 2013.

The Karlsruhe-based Constitutional Court said the new arrangements of distributing parliamentary seats in the lower house, pushed forward by the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) and Free Democrats (FDP) in 2011, "breach the fundamental principles of equal, direct elections and equal opportunities for parties in several respects."

The court supported the appeals lodged by the opposition Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and more than 3,000 citizens, who said that the law reform benefited the bigger parties, particularly Merkel's conservative CDU.

According to Germany's complex electoral system, one voter should cast two parallel ballots in the election -- one for a candidate in the constituency of the voter and the other for a particularly party.

If a party gains more seats in the direct election for candidates than the distribution it has in the party election based on the percentage of the votes, the party will occupy the so-called extra seats in the Bundestag, or the lower house of parliament.

In the 2009 election, Merkel's CDU and its sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) grabbed 24 extra seats, enhancing its advantage of majority in the parliament.

Judges in the top court held that extra seats would not be banned, but should not be more than 15.

The court's verdict is clearly a bitter fruit for Merkel's conservatives, which tried last year to promote these amendments of election law without reaching consensus with main opposition.

As the next general election is due in autumn next year, all parties now have to work carefully and quickly to get ready a new election mechanism in the following months. It would be another serious challenge for Merkel's coalition, which has been trapped in headache troubles about eurozone debt crisis.

While Merkel's deputy spokesman said the government respected the ruling, the Social Democrats applauded warmly the court's decision.

"The coalition, which messed up the election law as a tool of getting power, now paid the price," said Thomas Oppermann, speaker of the SPD faction in the Bundestag.

Bundestag President Norbert Lammert, also a Christian Democrat, urged all parties to "take a self-critical look at the legislative process" and agree on a new draft law for the election in the near future. 

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