“Minor mistakes happen”
The state returning officer does not expect a completely flawless election
02/12/2023, 09:30 am
After only 16 months, Berlin has to vote again. After the mishaps last time, there was also a change in the state returning officer. Stephan Bröchler is new in office. He dampens hopes of an election without any minor mistakes.
The Berlin State Returning Officer Stephan Bröchler is optimistic about the start of the repeat election for the House of Representatives. “I’m confident that hopefully everything will work out well today,” he said on Sunday morning after voting in front of a polling station in Pankow. Everything went smoothly for him in the morning.
Before the repeat election, communication with the districts was intensified, talked to the printer and everything was checked carefully, said Bröchler. However, he does not expect a completely trouble-free Sunday. “We should have all the information together around 6 p.m., which went well overall, I hope as much as possible, and where there were also minor glitches,” said Bröchler. “Because that’s what’s going to happen.” There is no perfect choice. That’s why he likes to talk about a “low-friction” election. “So there will also be minor election errors today, but not these structural errors like we had in 2021.”
In Berlin, after only 16 months, there will be another election today. Around 2.4 million Berliners are called upon to re-elect their state parliament. It is a repeat election because the last vote was declared invalid by a court. There has never been anything like this in Germany before.
According to the latest surveys, the CDU is up to 25 percent ahead of the SPD of the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (21 percent) and the Greens (18 percent). The federal capital is currently governed by a coalition of SPD, Greens and Left. Even if the CDU were to become the strongest force, it would be uncertain whether it would find a coalition partner. However, the big unknown in the re-election is participation. It is expected to be very low after 75.4 percent on September 26, 2021, when the state elections coincided with the federal elections.