Status: 15.10.2021 3:59 p.m.
The Federal Returning Officer has announced the final result of the Bundestag election: According to this, there will be 736 members in parliament – one more than initially thought. An objection to the result in individual constituencies of Berlin is being examined.
After the final official result of the election on September 26, the Bundestag has one more seat than previously assumed. Parliament will now have 736 members instead of the 735 determined in the preliminary result, as Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel said at a meeting of the Federal Electoral Committee. That is 27 MEPs more than at the moment. The 20th Bundestag is the largest in the history of the Federal Republic.
The additional mandate goes to the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU. The reason is a plus in the counted second votes. According to reports, the additional mandate goes to the CDU MP Jürgen Hardt. The Greens lose a mandate in North Rhine-Westphalia, but gain one in Bavaria.
No change in the election result
In the case of the second votes, there is no difference in the final result compared to the provisional result announced immediately after the election. The SPD comes to 25.7 percent (2017: 20.5), the Union to 24.1 percent (32.9), the Greens to 14.8 percent (8.9) and the AfD to 10.3 Percent (12.6). With 4.9 percent (9.2), the left missed the five percent hurdle, but is still represented in the Bundestag in parliamentary groups due to three direct mandates.
Of the 736 mandates, 206 go to the SPD, 197 to the Union, 118 to the Greens, 92 to the FDP, 83 to the AfD, 39 to the Left and one to the South Schleswig voter association (SSW). The new Bundestag will hold its constituent session on October 26th.
Significantly more postal voters than in 2017
At 47.3 percent, the proportion of postal voters this year was significantly higher than in 2017 – when it was 28.6 percent. The proportion in federal elections has risen continuously since 1957, said Thiel. However, there has not yet been an increase of 18.7 percentage points. Bavaria had the highest share with 62.4 percent, Thuringia the lowest with 32.4 percent.
Thiel wants to examine possible objection
In addition, Thiel announced that in the coming days he would “continue to examine” whether he would object to the validity of the election in individual constituencies of Berlin. The large number of errors there is “awkward and noticeable”.
In the capital, the ballot papers ran out in several polling stations on September 26th, as a result of which individual polling stations were temporarily closed. In some cases, false ballot papers were also issued. In many places, long queues formed, so that in individual cases polling stations did not close until around 8 p.m. or later.
Laschet did not influence voters
Thiel pointed out that the marathon in Berlin had taken place at the same time as the general election. Special precautions should have been taken for this, said the Federal Returning Officer. However, the irregularities had no effect on the announcement of the final election results.
The state election control in Berlin has already announced that it will object to the result of the election to the House of Representatives, which also took place on September 26th.
At the meeting, Thiel also dealt with incidents in other federal states and mentioned CDU boss Armin Laschet – without naming him. When casting his vote, he wrongly folded his slip of paper so that his crosses were visible to the CDU. Since this only revealed “expected voting behavior”, this is not a question of influencing voters, Thiel affirmed.