Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) Photo: picture alliance/dpa
From BZ/dpa
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) expects clarity by December about the consequences of the mishaps in last fall’s elections.
“We assume that the decision of the Constitutional Court will be made in December as to the form in which any by-elections will take place,” Giffey told the Berliner Zeitung. In her view, “a combination of many factors” led to the problems. “First of all, the combination of the election and the marathon was not a happy choice, it must not happen again,” she emphasized.
But there are also some organizational things that need to be clarified and improved for the future – such as the distribution of ballot papers and the number of election workers. Now the specific recommendations of the commission of experts set up by the Senate must be implemented. If there are not enough volunteer election workers, it is conceivable that state staff could be obliged to do so. “I’ve already spoken to the staff council about this,” says Giffey. The state of Berlin has more than 130,000 employees in the public sector.
The Constitutional Court of the State of Berlin wants to hear the objections to the elections to the House of Representatives and the district assemblies on September 28th. The decision will be announced at a later date. The Bundestag decides on the elections to the Bundestag and their validity in its own procedure.
The elections for the Bundestag and, at the same time, for the Berlin House of Representatives on September 26 last year were marked by numerous mishaps and organizational problems in the capital. These included incorrect and missing ballots, the temporary closure of polling stations and long queues in front of them, sometimes with waiting times of hours. In addition, some polling stations were open well after 6 p.m.
