The Story

Berlin will have to rerun the election for its city hall after the capital’s highest court issued a devastating ruling on the mis-management of last year’s election.

The court said it had found “glaring mistakes” made during the preparation for the election and on election day itself.

“Thousands of eligible voters were unable to cast their ballots, others were unable to do so effectively, or only in unacceptable conditions, or were unable to do so without being influenced,” the court found.

At hundreds of polling stations on election day in September 2021, Berliners were still standing in queues waiting to vote when the first exit polls were released at 6pm. This essentially meant that they could cast their ballot with knowledge of how other people had already voted.

Now, it’s tempting to blame this on the fact that the people of the capital are famously late starters on Sundays, (let’s just say their booths weren’t in such heavy demand at 11am…