Curious election mode in Berlin: Repetition choice without election programs and with changed conditions

Curious election mode in Berlin: Repetition choice without election programs and with changed conditions

Are you one of the Berliners who can vote again today? Then you want you to know where you want to make your cross. Because this repetition choice is significantly more curious than a normal Bundestag election.

First of all: 550,000 votes entitled to vote, as if they had not yet chosen. As always, you have a second and first voice. The candidates remained the same. Everything is zero.

Everything else is no longer normal. In the middle of the election period, there are logically no election programs. Freezing campaigners on winter Berlin streets distributed flyers that are a mixture of balance sheet and promise that could have long been implemented. In parts, even election posters from 2021 were recycled.

If you look at it soberly, a large -scale election campaign would have been nonsensical. After all, we have an existing government, a governing chancellor. This is not removed from office by the new counting of 0.91 percent of all votes. Most candidates are either already in parliament - or they also have little chance of moving into the Bundestag this time.

In the past two years, things have also changed very practical things that make this choice look strange. Should I give my voice of a politician who now bears responsibility as deputy district mayor? Or even an AfD politician who is now in prison?

One must not happen in this choice. If only a few people go to election due to curiosities and lack of federal relevance, one thing will actually change: the number of MPs who are in the Bundestag for Berlin. In the Bundestag election two and a half years ago, the turnout was 75.2 percent.

This time significantly fewer people could go to choose from. Then Berlin will lose some of his 29 members of the Bundestag. It is difficult to make out how many MPs are affected, details are expected to only be determined on Monday. In the end, however, three to four Berliners could be represented in parliament - across all party borders. That alone is reason enough to go to the election. Otherwise we all lose.

We can learn from this repetition. The election examination procedure took two years, and the Federal Constitutional Court had to decide as the top authority how the repetition choice should work. It all took too long. If half of a legislature has passed until errors are corrected, the repetition of half of its meaningfulness is deprived.

What if a federal election really invalidated to a greater extent? In the meantime, a government would have enough time to alert and without democratic legitimation. That sounds hypothetical today. Tomorrow it can be practically relevant.

This results in a clear order to politics. Such an election test may not take longer than a few months in the future. This choice of repetition is a lesson for how it is not allowed. The Bundestag urgently needs to take on this problem. From tomorrow may be less with some Berlin MPs.

** relevant information: **

- 550,000 Berliners take part in the repetition choice as if they had not yet chosen.
- Everything is zero, there are no election programs during the election period.
- Election posters from 2021 were partially recycled.
- the majority of the candidates are already in parliament or have little chance of moving into the Bundestag.
- A low turnout could lead to Berlin losing some of his 29 members of the Bundestag.
- Details about the affected MPs are only determined on Monday.
- The election examination procedure after the last federal election lasted two years, which was too long.
- There is a need that such an election test may only take a few months in the future.
- This choice of repetition represents a lesson for how it shouldn't go.

The table below shows the number of members of the Bundestag who could lose Berlin after the choice of choice:

| Voting turnout | MPs who loses Berlin |
| - | - |
| 75.2% | 0 |
| Less than 75.2%, but more than 70% | 1 |
| Less than 70%, but more than 65% | 2 |
| Less than 65%, but more than 60% | 3 |
| Less than 60% | 4 |

The Berliners have to send a clear message and go to the election to ensure that the city is appropriately represented in the Bundestag and that such problems will be avoided in the future. The government must not be able to rule without democratic legitimation if an election is declared invalid. The Bundestag urgently needs to take measures to ensure that election tests can be completed in a reasonable time. Otherwise, this could lead to a repetition choice, at which Berlin loses further MPs.

Source: Berliner Morgenpost/OTS