The federal election in Berlin must be partially repeated. The Federal Constitutional Court decided this on Tuesday in Karlsruhe.
After the Bundestag decided with the votes of the traffic light coalition in November 2022 that some of Berlin’s electoral districts had to repeat the vote, the Union faction filed an election audit complaint. From their point of view, the election should be repeated in more electoral districts. That’s why the Federal Constitutional Court now had to decide on it.
Election day in the capital more than two years ago was chaotic: ballot papers were missing from the polling stations, long queues formed in front of them and polling stations temporarily had to close or remained open until well after 6 p.m. The voting errors could have led to people not exercising their right to vote, said Judge Peter Müller at the hearing in July.
Müller explained that so much time has passed since then with the two-stage review process and the high number of objections. The election of the House of Representatives, which took place simultaneously in 2021, was completely repeated in February 2023 after the Berlin Constitutional Court declared it invalid due to “serious systemic deficiencies” and numerous electoral errors.