The chaos in the federal election in Berlin has consequences.
The Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel objects to the election result.
Berlin / Wiesbaden - When looking back at the federal election, these images are always present: Long queues in front of polling stations, angry citizens and desperate election workers.
The federal capital Berlin, of all places, was unable to cope with the rush to the polling stations in view of several elections and decisions being held at the same time.
That now has serious consequences.
Possibly even for the result of the general election.
Bundestag election: The Federal Returning Officer objects to the election result in Berlin
Because after the mishaps in Berlin, Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel appealed against the result.
"Due to the accumulation and severity of individual voting errors, I have appealed against the validity of the election to the 20th German Bundestag in six Berlin constituencies," he said on Friday in Wiesbaden.
Due to the problems on election day, it cannot be ruled out that “without these incidents the German Bundestag would have been allocated a different seat”.
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Bundestag election: Federal Returning Officer objects - six constituencies in Berlin affected
On September 26, there was a temporary closure of voting rooms in Berlin constituencies due to missing or incorrect ballot papers and queues in front of voting rooms for other organizational reasons.
There were sometimes very long waiting times, so that as a result, many voters would not have been able to exercise their right to vote, it said in the statement by the Federal Returning Officer.
The objection relates to constituencies 75 Berlin-Mitte, 76 Berlin-Pankow, 77 Berlin-Reinickendorf, 79 Berlin-Steglitz-Zehlendorf, 80 Berlin-Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and 83 Berlin-Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg-Prenzlauer Berg Ost.
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Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel objects to the election result in Berlin.
© Thomas Frey / dpa
Federal Returning Officer establishes election errors and lodges an objection
Thiel claims to have requested a report from the Berlin state return officer to examine the incidents.
According to all currently available knowledge, the incidents would have violated electoral regulations and therefore represented electoral errors that, among other things, would have impaired the principle of the generality of the election.
In addition, the election errors that occurred could have been relevant to the mandate.
The objection was lodged with the Bundestag election review committee.
He must now check whether there were electoral errors and whether these were relevant to the mandate, i.e. had an impact on the distribution of seats in the Bundestag.
All eligible voters as well as the federal returning officers and the federal returning officer have the opportunity to appeal against the election to the election review committee of the German Bundestag, it said in the press release of the federal returning officer.
The deadline for this ends on November 26, 2021.
(ck / dpa)