The Constitutional Court orders re-voting in Berlin

2023-12-19 14:46:51, Kosova & Bota CNA

It has long been clear that in Berlin, not only the municipal elections, but also the Bundestag elections of 2021 should be repeated, at least in part. However, the question of how many constituencies this should be done in was controversial.

In November last year, the Bundestag declared that it was necessary to vote again in 431 of the 2,000 constituencies. The CDU/CSU in the Bundestag thought this was too little and wanted people to vote again in around half of the constituencies.

The Constitutional Court verified the decision of the Bundestag to repeat the elections, that is, it examined in detail the minutes of the individual electoral districts from 2021. And as the Vice President of the Court, Doris König, announced today, "The decision of the German Bundestag dated November 10, 2022 is, in essentially, in accordance with the law".

The court said that instead of 431 areas - as decided by the Bundestag - it should be voted again in 455 areas. But not in 1,000 areas, as the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag had requested. The elections must be repeated in 455 constituencies and in the corresponding postal voting areas, said the President of the Court, Doris Köng.

The Constitutional Court orders re-voting in Berlin

The court said there had been numerous errors in the counting of votes in some Berlin constituencies. Therefore, part of the elections must be repeated, as in the first round, with the first and second votes respectively. New elections throughout Berlin are not necessary, according to the Federal Constitutional Court, because there were electoral errors in only about 15 percent of the electoral zones.

Chaotic choice

The elections in Berlin were characterized by long queues and a lack of ballots.

The vote, which took place on 26 September 2021, concerned elections for the federal state of Berlin, the city's 12 district assemblies, the German national election as well as a local referendum.

A flaw allowed minors to vote in state and federal elections using a mail-in ballot ordered by someone 18 or older, and mail-in ballots for different elections had to be placed in a single envelope.

Berlin authorities rushed to correct the mistakes days before election day by warning local polling stations to change procedures to avoid fraud during the count. But another flaw, which allowed German citizens living outside Germany to vote in local elections using the same trick, was not closed in time.

The Constitutional Court orders re-voting in Berlin

The Berlin Marathon also took place on the same day, which made it more difficult to send replacement ballots to certain precincts.

The chairman of the election commission for the Berlin state, Stephan Bröchler, announced in Karlsruhe that the partial elections will take place on February 11. Planning already started can be implemented.

The elections were also repeated at the county level

The Constitutional Court annulled the regional and municipal elections. The 2021 municipal elections were rescheduled for early 2023. The conservative CDU party won the majority of the vote and managed to oust the previous mayor, who belonged to the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD)./ DW