The chairwoman of the main staff council of the Berlin administration, Daniela Ortmann, reacted cautiously to the proposal to call in state officials to help with the elections in the event of a new election. “It is true that the Governing Mayor spoke to us about it,” Ortmann told the Tagesspiegel.
She added: “It doesn’t work for a smile. If the proposal is actually to be implemented, a proper participation process must be in place.”
Ortmann was reacting to a suggestion that Prime Minister Franziska Giffey (SPD) had recently made in relation to a possible re-election in Berlin. In an interview with the “Berliner Zeitung” she said: “If we don’t have enough volunteer election workers, then we must also take the step of saying: The state of Berlin has over 130,000 employees in the public sector. Then the commitment of our national staff must also be considered. I have already discussed this with the staff council.”
Ortmann pointed out that obligatory support of the election by state officials would have financial consequences, after all, the extra work then ordered would have to be remunerated – especially on a Sunday and until late in the evening due to counting. In addition, she pointed out that an official order is contrary to the principle of citizen elections.
Giffey, whose party is likely to face significant losses if the election is repeated, also said in an interview that the election, which was overshadowed by a series of breakdowns, was influenced by a “concatenation of many factors”.
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So the combination of the election with the marathon was not a happy choice. Organizational things would have to be “clarified and improved”. The Governing Mayor spoke out in favor of taking the present report on the election mishaps seriously and implementing its recommendations.
A decision by the State Constitutional Court on the question of whether and if so to what extent the election to the House of Representatives must be repeated is expected towards the end of the year. A hearing on this is dated September 28th. Robert Pebble
