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Cottbus town hall
Photo: Paul Zinken / dpa
In the mayoral election in Cottbus, a runoff between the SPD candidate Tobias Schick and the AfD candidate Lars Schieske is necessary.
None of the seven candidates received an absolute majority of the votes on Sunday.
In the first ballot, Schick was 31.8 percent ahead of Schieske (26.4 percent).
This means there will be a runoff election on October 9th.
The AfD has not yet provided a mayor in Germany.
The turnout in the Brandenburg city was 53.3 percent and thus slightly higher than in the last mayor election in 2014 (48.8 percent).
Around 79,000 Cottbus residents were called on Sunday to elect a new city leader for the next eight years.
Six candidates and one female candidate entered the race: Thomas Bergner (CDU), Tobias Schick (SPD), Lars Schieske (AfD), Sven Benken (Unser Cottbus), Lysann Kobbe (Die Basis), Felix Sicker (FDP) and Johann Staudinger (single applicant).
Returning officer denies allegations of fraud
On the fringes of the vote, the Cottbus election officer, Carsten Konzack, rejected allegations of fraud.
On the Telegram messenger service, a user wrote that anyone who was identified as a potential AfD voter would obviously receive a canceled ballot.
A ballot paper with the upper right corner missing was posted.
Another post spoke of a »devalued document«.
Returning officer Konzack said on Sunday: "This is just a tip for people with visual impairments to be able to insert the paper with the template correctly." This is the case with all ballot papers.
The Federal Electoral Code stipulates that the top right corner must be punched or cut off.
dab/dpa