Halfway through the referendum, there was a surprisingly high turnout.
With 32.6 percent, almost exactly a third of all those entitled to vote have already cast their ballot papers for the referendum “Wind power in the Ebersberger Forst”.
District
- The municipal electoral offices reported their numbers to the District Office as of Monday, May 3rd, as this reports: 36,312 district citizens have made use of their right to vote.
A total of 111,395 people from the district are entitled to vote.
The turnout in cities and towns currently fluctuates between 27 and 37 percent.
Niedergesäß: A first success
District Administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU) says: “It is an initial success of the first referendum at district level that so many district citizens take part.
You can see from this that this topic is important to very many people and that very many have an opinion on it and would like to express it.
This corresponds to the motivation on which the referendum is based.
It should give the citizens the opportunity to decide directly and by a majority whether the plans for five wind turbines in the Ebersberger Forest should be continued and concretised or not. "
Critics criticize the district council's fear of decision-making
Not everyone shares this view of the district administrator.
Critics accuse him and the district council of having shirked such a far-reaching decision.
Exclusively by postal vote
The referendum is only carried out by postal vote, which is probably another reason for the high turnout. All eligible voters received the documents last month. By 16 May 2021, 6:00 p.m. at the latest, they must be filled out and handed in to the mailbox of the municipal administration of the municipality in which you live. There is still time to find out more, form an opinion and then vote. Information can be found, for example, on the Internet at www.windenergie-ebersberger-forst.de.
“Democracy is already the winner of this referendum. Climate protection, nature conservation and the Ebersberg Forest, that concerns us all. You can see not only from the passionate discussion that has been going on for over a decade, but also from the voter turnout that is already very high and therefore representative for a referendum, that it was the right thing to involve people in this central decision, even if some of them have this type of citizen participation always criticized and even interpreted as a political weakness, "said the district administrator.