The 2021 local parliamentary elections in the German capital Berlin will have to be held again due to a number of problems on election day, Berlin’s Constitutional Court declared on November 16.
The court declared the intra-state election completely void after problems like missing ballots and issuing wrong ballots to voters. Another problem was that voters struggled to get additional ballots, resulting in long lines outside many polling places in the area.
Polls were supposed to close at 6 p.m., but those waiting in line at that time were still allowed to vote when the exit polls were already open to the public. In addition, Berlin held his marathon on the same day, which closed many roads and created logistical problems for voters.
The first ballot took place in September 2021, the same day as the federal elections, but the federal elections have also been partially redone due to serious election day problems at many polling stations.
New state elections must be held within 90 days of last week’s ruling. It will take place on February 12, 2023, according to the new head of the Berlin elections authority, whose predecessor resigned due to chaotic 2021 votes.
Earlier this month, German federal returnee Georg Thiel said the 2021 elections were a “complete systemic failure” and announced a partial redo of federal parliamentary elections in the near future. He noted that the error may have affected the distribution of seats in Congress.
The German Bundestag has yet to reveal when Germans will have to re-vote in the capital.
The rerun of the election will take place in 327 of Berlin’s 2,256 constituencies. The results of rerun general elections in the German capital are not expected to affect the outcome of the federal elections.
But it could be a different story in Berlin’s parliamentary assembly, where the centre-left Social Democrats, led by mayor Franziska Giffey, marginally outnumbered the environmentalist Greens. original state elections.
Giffey said her government will not challenge the court’s ruling and will do everything to ensure that the re-election is properly organized.
“It’s clear that a mistake was made here and it should never happen again. It shouldn’t have happened,” she said.
according to election vote Issued by the INSA Institute on 18 November, the bill would give the SPD 20% of the vote, the Greens (17%) and the opposition Christian Democrats (28%). The survey he conducted among 1,314 respondents.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
from NTD News
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Lorenz Duchamps is a news writer for NTD, a sister publication of The Epoch Times, focused primarily on US, world and entertainment news.