New elections 2025: Citizens' offices in Berlin face enormous challenges!

New elections 2025: Citizens' offices in Berlin face enormous challenges!

Frankfurter Allee, 10247 Berlin, Deutschland - nag/nag editors -

The clock ticks relentlessly! In Berlin, the citizens' offices face a huge challenge: the early Bundestag election on February 23 brings with it enormous time pressure. Only stay a little more than three months to prepare everything for the choice. Voting slips have to be printed, election workers are organized and polling stations set up. But the district offices are not set for this rapid preparation!

In the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, the citizens' office in Frankfurter Allee will close for about four to six weeks to make the necessary preparations. A temporary closure of a citizens' office is also expected in Spandau. So far, the remaining district offices have not announced any further closures, but the uncertainty remains. The average waiting time for an appointment in the citizens' office is already 33 days, and citizens have to prepare for even longer waiting times. A total of around 5,000 appointments are deleted in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg!

overtime and pressure on the employees

Usually the district offices have up to twelve months for the election preparation. But this year you have to manage everything in just three months. "We have sweat beads on our forehead," says Tim Richter (CDU), district councilor in Steglitz-Zehlendorf. In order to cope with the enormous workload, overtime was arranged and vacation blocks were imposed - even over the holidays! In Treptow-Köpenick there is an “absolute state of emergency”, which can only be managed by the high motivation of the employees.

Another challenge is the high amount of postal voting documents, which could be reinforced by the upcoming weather conditions. The deputy election manager in Reinickendorf warns of the enormous burden, which brings with it in such a short time. In order to withstand the pressure, additional employees were hired to support the election preparations. These new elections are the first in which the new positions are used in the districts - a ray of hope in the middle of the chaos!