Bundestag election: hundreds of fencing the result – especially the BSW

Against the result of the Bundestag election on February 23, hundreds of people appealed to the expiry of the deadline – above all the alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, which is still hoping for the move into parliament. Due to counting errors, up to 32,000 BSW votes were not or were assigned incorrectly, the party said. However, only 9,529 votes were missing from the five percent hurdle. The BSW calls for a new count.

According to the election audit law, each person entitled to vote can appeal in writing within two months of a nationwide election. The election examination committee elected by the Bundestag advises this. Then the plenum decides. There are no deadlines for this.

According to a spokesman, the Bundestag registered 885 entries by Tuesday evening. However, more were added on Wednesday. For example, the association “More Democracy” wanted to fax a total of 900 objections from citizens during the day until the day before midnight, as a spokesman said. The initiators primarily complain about problems with postal voting from German Germans.

BSW-Co-Co-Co-Mohamed Ali carried the documents to obtain her party in the afternoon in a box for the election examination committee. The BSW had achieved 4.981 percent of the second votes after the official end result in the federal election. Because she was below five percent, she is not sitting in the new Bundestag. However, the party suspects various mistakes in counting and has said that it has researched small -scale documents.

“The bottom line is that the votes found for the BSW are sufficient to exceed the five percent hurdle to 95,109 election gymnasts and postal voting districts,” said the party. A new count was offered in order not to give any doubts about democracy, said BSW general secretary Christian Leye.

Party leader Sahra Wagenknecht said the “Rheinische Post”: “The BSW does not demand more and no less than that every voice that has been given for the BSW also counts for the BSW. So far, this is definitely not the case.” Co-boss Mohamed Ali made it clear that the BSW does not assume manipulations. “We believe that mistakes have happened.”

If the BSW still faded into the Bundestag, the 630 mandates would be shared. In this case, the planned black and red coalition would probably no longer have a majority. It is unlikely because of these consequences that the other parties will take the BSW in the test procedure, said Leye. In this case, the BSW plans to move to the constitutional court. Until the dispute has been clarified, it should be months if it is not years.

In Karlsruhe, the complaints of the 900 citizens could also land that announced “more democracy” and the foundation with the Germans abroad. “If the Bundestag rejects the collective vote, then we will submit an election examination complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court,” said Oliver Junk, chairman of the foundation. The aim is reforms that make it easier to participate in elections abroad.

According to the information, those affected see the “principle of the general public of choice” due to problems with postal voting. Many Germans living abroad were denied participation in the election because documents had not arrived in time. In general, the hurdles for the 3.5 million abroad are too high. The election had been preferred after the breakdown of the traffic light coalition, the deadlines for postal voting, for example, were shortened.

An objection can be successful if an error in preparation or implementation of the Bundestag election is found. In addition, this error must have influenced or at least influence the distribution of seats in the Bundestag. Experts speak of relevance to mandate.

In the past, the vast majority of the elections were unsuccessful. The Bundestag election 2021 was a counterexample. In Berlin, the mistakes in the preparation and implementation were so serious that the election, according to a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court, had to be repeated in 455 of the more than 2,000 constituencies.