Monday 22 November 2021
Complicated member survey
Applicants for CDU chairmanship argue over election
Friedrich Merz and Helge Braun apparently fear that Norbert Röttgen will have a decisive advantage in the election of the new CDU party leader. That is why they want to change the voting procedure. Röttgen defends itself against it.
According to a report, the CDU chairman candidates Friedrich Merz and Helge Braun want to simplify the procedure for the member survey because applying for postal voting documents is too complicated. As the “Bild” newspaper reported, everyone who does not register for online voting should automatically receive postal voting documents. At the moment, the postal voting documents must be expressly requested by sending the voting letter back to the party headquarters. According to the report, however, the third candidate, external expert Norbert Röttgen, is reluctant to change the procedure.
“The procedure was proposed by the Secretary General and decided unanimously in the Presidium and in the Federal Executive Committee,” said Röttgen of the newspaper. “Every member has been informed in writing about the procedure. For me it is crucial that the procedure is clean and incontestable.”
According to the report, the advance on the part of Merz and Braun is based on the fact that Röttgen could benefit from the original procedure because he is relying on younger, online-savvy members. His opponents assume that many older CDU members could not have understood the active application for postal voting documents and therefore cannot vote at all, the “Bild” newspaper reported on.
Presentation of the candidates starts
The head of the Senior Citizens Union, Otto Wulff, shares this fear. “From my point of view it would have been more expedient to send the ballot papers for the election of the chairman to all CDU members independently of a separate individual registration,” the 88-year-old told the newspaper. “This would have made it much easier for senior citizens in the CDU to participate.” Wulff asked for the procedure to be re-examined and simplified.
After the historically poor performance in the federal elections, the CDU has its new party leader determined by its 400,000 members for the first time. After the vote of the base, Armin Laschet’s successor is to be formally elected at a party congress on January 21st and 22nd in Hanover. In the evening, the official presentation of the applicants for the party chairmanship begins, the party initially broadcasts a live event with Merz. Röttgen follows on Wednesday and Braun on Thursday. On December 1st, all three will then answer questions from the CDU members together.