Germany: International election observers due to arrive in Berlin on Friday

The international election monitors who have been appointed to observe Berlin’s repeated regional elections on February 12 will arrive in the German capital this Friday, the city-state’s election commissioner Stephan Bröchler announced on Tuesday.

The observers are from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, who specialize in elections at the sub-national level.

According to Bröchler, they will hold talks with the parties involved on Saturday, before visiting polling stations to observe Sunday’s voting.

Bröchler had also invited election monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). However, after preliminary checks, including on the ground in Berlin, the OSCE saw no need to send any experts to Berlin on February 12.

The elections were originally held in September 2021. In November last year the Berlin Constitutional Court declared the votes for the House of Representatives and the district parliaments invalid. The court found that between 20,000 to 30,000 votes were affected by electoral errors.

The process was considered chaotic as not only were local and federal posts up for grabs, but the Berlin Marathon took place on the same day and several major streets were closed. Polling stations were inadequately staffed and some prematurely ran out of ballot papers.