Hildburghausen (dpa/th) – The election for a new mayor in Hildburghausen is dragging on. A successor to Tilo Kummer (left), who did not survive a voting procedure supported by SPD and AfD city councils, is unlikely to be elected before May, the southern Thuringian city said on Monday on request. The date will be set by the local authority after they have determined the final result of the deselection. The new election is likely to take place between mid-May and early June.
With the determination of the final result, which should take place in the coming days, Kummer’s term of office will end. Until the new election, the first deputy Burkhard Knittel (non-party) will lead the official business. According to the preliminary result, which was to be checked again by the voting committee on Monday evening, 2,853 people voted in favor of Kummer’s deselection on Sunday, and 1,390 against. The referendum was initiated by city councils from the SPD, AfD and a far-right voters’ association, among others, which sparked controversy, especially within the Thuringian SPD.
CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja wrote on Twitter on Monday: “Double dam breach in
Thuringia’s SPD leader Georg Maier spoke of major political damage. According to him, a party organization procedure has now been initiated against two SPD city councilors who had voted together with the AfD for the deselection procedure. An SPD city councilor resigned from the party after the incident. The initiators justified the vote-out request with a disturbed relationship of trust between the citizens and Kummer.
More yes votes than no votes were needed for the deselection, and the yes votes had to be at least 30 percent of the 9338 eligible voters, so 2802 yes votes were needed according to the voting manager. Kummer announced that he did not want to run for mayor in Hildburghausen again.
