The corona crisis is currently affecting almost every part of public life. But the local elections in Bavaria took place. Was this decision correct?
- Public life in Bavaria has meanwhile been severely restricted due to the spread of coronavirus * , but the local elections took place as planned.
- Internet users are controversial as to whether this decision by the authorities was correct.
- On Merkur.de * you will find the results of mayoral elections * and district elections * throughout Bavaria.
- We send you the most important stories from your Merkur.de * region once a week in our free, local newsletter. Register and receive all information about the election on Monday morning at 6 a.m.
Munich - events are canceled, schools and kindergartens are closed and the population is instructed to stay at home as much as possible and to reduce social contacts to what is absolutely necessary. The Corona crisis puts all of Germany in an unprecedented state of emergency . But in the midst of this crisis, an event is carried out almost normally: the local election in Bavaria .
2020 Local Election Despite Corona: Will It Affect Virus Spread?
This Sunday, many voters in Bavaria put their crosses - for mayors, city, municipality and district councilors. Narrow booths, queues in front of the polling stations and hundreds of people sharing the same pen - this is certainly not conducive to curbing the spread of coronavirus * . And also many election workers who were on duty on Sunday may have had a queasy feeling.
On Twitter , some users cleared their displeasure with the municipal election. Twitter user Wolfgang Linke described the decision of the authorities as "irresponsible" and referred in particular to the lack of protection * for the election workers. And the Bavarian comedian Addnfahrer also got excited about the local elections being carried out in the midst of the Corona crisis. He sharply criticized the government for taking this step.
# municipal election2020
Stops the madness and cancels this local election, where is the reason and what about the well-being of the volunteer election workers. That is irresponsible !!!
2020 local election despite Corona: Even old people's homes were declared polling stations
It is also incomprehensible for some Internet users that even in the times of Corona, some old people's homes were once again converted into polling stations . Because especially in older people, there are often serious illnesses that can sometimes be fatal. Therefore, crowds of people in old people's homes should be avoided at all costs. As the right to visit senior homes has already been severely restricted, it is extremely surprising to them that numerous voters should cast their votes there.
In view of the increasing spread of coronavirus, there were fears before the election that participation might be low - but these turned out to be unfounded. In the early afternoon, the turnout across Bavaria was 40.6 percent, almost as high as in the last municipal election in 2014 as a whole. For example, sixty-two years ago, 42 percent of those entitled to vote cast their votes; this year, observers expect a participation of around 50 percent .
Incidentally, not only the corona crisis, but also a technical disruption caused a stir in the local elections in Bavaria *. The vote counting process was not affected, but citizens were sometimes incorrectly informed about election results on the municipal website.
Local election 2020 despite Corona: Not all Twitter users criticize the implementation
And also on Twitter there are not only critical voices on local elections in the times of Corona. Voting is possible without contact and also with your own pen, writes a Twitter user on the social network. Another user is also calling on the Bavarian population to vote despite Corona . "Just keep a little distance from others, don't touch your face and wash your hands at home, " she writes.
This is good news, please vote democratically # if you haven't been. ️✅
This is possible without contact (even with your own pen ✍️) and sustainably safeguards our livelihood and fundamental rights. This means that the #2020 municipal election can no longer be weighed up.
Precautions have also been taken at most polling stations. It was allowed to take your own pen into the booth and disinfectants and the ability to wash your hands with soap and water were available at most polling stations. Whether the municipal election was carried out correctly in the currently extremely critical situation can only be judged in the next few days by the further spread of Corona *. It also remains to be seen whether the corona crisis has had an impact on the composition of the electorate. For example, it would be conceivable that older people, due to the particularly high risk for them, increasingly did not take part in the election.
Further information on the 2020 local elections in Bavaria:
You can read all current developments in local elections in Bavaria * in our news ticker. You can read about the municipal elections in the state capital Munich and the overall results for Bavaria at Merkur.de *.
You can also find more information about local elections * on our topic page. In addition, the big losers of the evening were probably the Greens *. However, one can only speculate about the reasons for their poor performance in the mayoral elections.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
List of rubric lists: © dpa / Sven Hoppe