The question marks were big. But the local elections in Bavaria take place, despite the corona virus. Does the crisis affect the elections?
Munich (dpa) - Amid the Corona crisis, local elections are coming up in Bavaria. Everywhere in the Free State the local parliaments are elected: municipal councils, city councils, district councils - and almost everywhere the mayors and first mayors.
In Bavaria's 4000 elections, a total of almost 40,000 mandates have to be awarded. It is one of the few election dates this year. After the Hamburg elections at the end of February, apart from Bavaria, only North Rhine-Westphalia will vote, and local elections in September. It will not be another "super election year" until 2021, with five state elections and the regular federal election date.
For the parties, the local elections are an important mood test after the 2018 state elections and the 2019 European elections - although local elections traditionally count very strongly as personality elections. The results of the mayor elections in 24 of the 25 independent cities, especially in Munich, Nuremberg and Augsburg, are eagerly awaited. The district councilors are newly elected in 64 of the 71 counties. In many places, however, the top positions will only be determined after the run-off elections on March 29 - where no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the votes in the first ballot.
Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) once again stressed on Friday that the local elections will take place as planned regardless of the spread of the corona virus. The necessary precautions have been taken. In the past few days, however, there had been a clear increase in mail voters in many places.
Basically, people's interest in the local elections is high: According to a survey by the polling institute Infratest dimap on behalf of the Bavarian Radio, 79 percent of voters in Bavaria are very or very interested in the elections. That is nine percentage points more than just before the 2014 election. Six years ago, the turnout was only 55 percent - the previous record in the history of local elections. This time, however, there was widespread concern that potential voters might stay at home because of the spread of the corona virus.
There will be no major election parties due to the Corona crisis on Sunday evening. And the state government is already preparing for the run-off elections in two weeks: voters should automatically receive postal ballot documents by mail.