2100 objections to the federal election: Are new elections threatening?

Created: 01/28/2022, 18:16

By: Patrick Kuolt

Will there soon be a new count in several constituencies?

The Bundestag is currently processing 2100 objections to the Bundestag elections.

© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa

Four months after the federal election, the Bundestag received historically many complaints about the vote due to problems in Berlin.

Will there be new elections?

Berlin - Negotiations continued for around eight weeks after the federal elections on September 26, 2021. On December 8, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the 16 ministers of the new government coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP received their certificates of appointment from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Bundestag election: record number of objections to the election result

So far, the work of the new government has also been dominated by the fight against the corona virus.

"Business as usual" in the Bundestag - one would think so.

In fact, the Election Review Committee is currently dealing with a historic record number of objections to the federal election.

There are 2,100, including one from Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel.

reports

, citing committee circles.

According to the portal, 80 to 300 lawsuits are common.

Are new elections looming?

Chaos in Berlin on election Sunday could have consequences

The reason for the exorbitantly high number of objections: There were chaotic scenes in Berlin on election Sunday.

There were almost endless queues in front of dozens of polling stations in the capital, ballot papers were missing, polling stations were moved at short notice and some voters did not cast their votes until after 6 p.m. - by then the polling stations should have been closed long ago.

Not surprisingly, the bulk of the complaints come from Berlin.

Bundestag: Committee examines the effects of the problems in the election on the distribution of seats

The members of the Election Review Committee, which consists of nine members of the Bundestag, now have the task of checking whether a so-called mandate-relevant election error has occurred.

This is the case when the events in the capital have violated the federal electoral law, the federal electoral code or the constitution, or even had an impact on the distribution of seats in the Bundestag.

Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel: New elections possible in six Berlin districts

, the Berlin state returning officer Petra Michaelis, who had since resigned because of the events, denied this

in a secret report to the federal returning officer Thiel.

However, Thiel himself sees the opportunity to do so in six of Berlin's 78 constituencies.

The consequence: Several tens of thousands of Berliners would be affected by new elections and would have to cast their votes again.

If the examination committee actually comes to the same conclusion and recommends new elections, the decision would first have to be confirmed by a simple majority in the Bundestag.

Whether, and if so, when this will happen, is unclear for the time being.