A new state parliament will be elected in Bavaria on October 8th. 9.4 million people can vote on whether the Free State will continue to be governed by a coalition of CSU and Free Voters that formed after the 2018 election – or whether the political balance will shift. In this news blog, the SZ collects the most important reports about the election and provides information on current developments:
Postal voting in Bavaria starts
Monday, August 28, 8 a.m.: The starting signal for postal voting in Bavaria: From this Monday it is – theoretically – possible to vote by post. In any case, according to the state returning authority, this is the earliest possible date from which it is possible to issue ballot papers with the postal voting documents – provided the ballot papers in the respective voting districts are ready. When exactly those entitled to vote hold their voting notifications in their hands will vary somewhat from municipality to municipality. The proportion of postal voters has been growing rapidly everywhere for years – in 2018, at 38.9 percent, it was higher than ever in Germany. And experts and parties firmly believe that the October 8 election will deliver a record number of postal voters.
CSU survey only slightly above the 2018 election result
Thursday, August 24, 10 a.m.: A month and a half before the Bavarian state elections, according to a new survey, there is hardly any movement in the political mood in Bavaria. The CSU comes in the Civey survey published on Thursday on behalf of Augsburg General and Mirror to 38 percent. That is just slightly more than the 2018 state election result (37.2 percent). The Greens come in the survey to 15 percent. The AfD ends up with 13 percent, the free voters come to 12 percent, the SPD stands at 10 percent. The FDP is at 4 percent, i.e. below the five percent hurdle, and must therefore continue to fear that it will re-enter the state parliament. In principle, election polls only reflect the opinion at the respective time or period of the survey and are not forecasts for the outcome of the election. They are always fraught with uncertainties.