The chaotic federal elections are to be repeated in around 400 of the 2,300 polling stations in Berlin. According to information from the Tagesspiegel, the election examination committee of the Bundestag has agreed on this. SPD, Greens and FDP want the Bundestag administration to draw up a corresponding recommendation for a decision.
This would mean that in about 17 percent of all polling stations in Berlin, the voters would have to decide again on the composition of the Bundestag. First, the mirror had reported about it. The focus of those polling stations that are specifically affected is in the six constituencies of Reinickendorf, Mitte, Pankow, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
The recommendations of the Berlin Constitutional Court, which is dealing with the mishaps of the parliamentary elections that are taking place at the same time, should also be included in the final recommendation. He wants to decide about it in September.
The Berlin state election authority did not want to comment on the political agreement of the traffic light coalition when asked by the Tagesspiegel.
The official decision is still pending. The Bundestag still has to decide on the expected decision of the Election Review Committee. Only a simple majority is required for this. The decision could then be challenged before the Federal Constitutional Court.
After these mishaps, Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel applied in May for the Bundestag elections to be completely repeated in six of Berlin’s twelve Bundestag constituencies. This would have affected many more polling stations.
“The trivialization of the scandalous electoral errors in Berlin seems to be giving up the traffic light,” commented Thomas Heilmann, member of the Bundestag and spokesman for the regional group of Berlin CDU parliamentarians. But the agreement does not go far enough for him. “At the state level, the election must therefore be repeated in its entirety,” Heilmann demanded. “At the federal level, too, the Union, like the Federal Returning Officer, sees a need for repetition in entire constituencies, not just in individual constituencies.”
