The ballot letters left behind in the Berlin district of Lichtenberg caused a stir, especially among the direct candidates, because they were on a par for a long time. A new count now seems to bring clarity to the matter.
After the counting of leftover ballot letters in Berlin’s Lichtenberg district, it looked like a stalemate and thus a draw between two direct candidates – that could have changed again. As reported by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), a recount showed that nine votes for the CDU in one polling station had not been included in the previous result. This would put CDU candidate Dennis Haustein ahead again.
After the election on Sunday, he had already led by ten votes ahead of the left candidate, Claudia Engelmann. Haustein would have won the direct mandate in Lichtenberg’s 3rd constituency. On Wednesday, however, 466 ballot letters accidentally left behind in the district were subsequently counted – Engelmann received 35 and Haustein 25 additional first votes, so that both were tied.
According to the electoral regulations, in the event of a tie, the lot would have to decide, as confirmed by state returning officer Stephan Bröchler. This would have been done with the additional nine votes for the CDU.
District returning officer Axel Hunger did not want to provide any information on the recount when asked and did not want to confirm the RBB report. The overall result for the Lichtenberg district will therefore be publicly announced on Monday afternoon. After the initial stalemate became known, the left had already called for a check count in the entire constituency.
