Düsseldorf (dpa-Afx)-When choosing the new mayor in North Rhine-Westphalia, AfD candidates made it into the runoff election in at least two cities. In Gelsenkirchen and Duisburg, the voters will decide in two weeks between the applicants of the SPD and AfD who should become their town hall manager.
In the long-standing SPD stronghold of Gelsenkirchen, AfD candidate Norbert Emmerich came to 29.8 percent in the first ballot. SPD candidate Andrea Henze received the strongest result, who came to 37.0 percent after counting all votes, as the city wrote on its website.
In Duisburg, Carsten Groß from the AfD reached the second best result of all candidates with 19.7 percent – but was significantly behind the town hall boss Sören Link (SPD), which has been in office since 2012, who achieved 46.0 percent of the vote.
In Hagen, too, AfD candidate Michael Eiche could make it into the runoff election. After counting 182 of the 183 voting districts, he was 21.3 percent behind Dennis Rehbein from the CDU (25.1 percent), but just ahead of Thomas Köhler from the SPD (20.9 percent).
Knacks also in the three largest cities in the country
In Cologne, the Greens Berivan Aymaz and the Social Democrat Torsten Burmester go to the mayor’s stitch election. According to the counting of almost all constituencies, Aymaz was 28.1 percent of the vote and has chances of becoming the first Green politician of the city of the million. Burmester came to 21.3 percent, as the city announced on its website.
In the state capital of Düsseldorf, Mayor Stephan Keller (CDU) goes into the runoff election with good prospects for a second term. Keller won 43.6 percent of the vote, as the city announced. The Greens candidate, Clara Gerlach, who came to a good 22 percent, landed in second place. Keller has ruled the state capital since the 2020 local elections with a clear majority of councils.
In the third largest city in the country, in Dortmund, the reigning mayor Thomas Westphal (SPD) won the most votes, but has to face a runoff election. Westphal received 27.4 percent of the vote. Alexander Omar Kalouti (CDU) made it into the runoff election of his eleven opposite candidates.
Knack elections on September 28th
If none of the applicants in the first ballot receive more than 50 percent of the votes during the votes on the mayor, mayor or district councilor in North Rhine-Westphalia, the two best-placed September 28 will go to a runoff election.