Local elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 2019
The 2019 local elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania took place on May 26, 2019 at the same time as the European elections. A vote was taken on the occupation of the municipal councils and the district assemblies . In addition, the mayors of the voluntarily administered municipalities were newly elected. In the municipalities administered on a full-time basis, the term of office of the directly elected mayor is not tied to the electoral period of the municipal councils, but in some places the mayoral election ran parallel to the local elections. In Rostock , the largest city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the mayor was newly elected on May 26, 2019.
Electoral process
The legal basis for the preparation and implementation of the election is regulated in particular by the constitution of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the state and municipal electoral law (LKWG).
Any EU citizen who has reached the age of 18, has lived in the electoral area for at least three months and has not been excluded from the election due to a final conviction can stand for the local elections . Unlike state elections , in addition to parties and voters' associations and individual candidates compete. Another special feature compared to the state election is that there is no five percent hurdle at the municipal level . Candidates must be nominated by March 12th.
The right to vote who lives in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern EU citizens who are at least 16 years old. As a result of Brexit , the 400 or more British citizens living in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are likely to lose their passive and active voting rights in local elections.
Each voter has three votes in the local elections, which he can distribute as desired via the candidate lists of the parties and electoral communities or the individual applicants. The votes can be given for three different candidates from one or more parties ( variegation ), but also all for a single candidate ( cumulation ).
Elections to the local councils
The representatives of 745 municipalities are elected . These are divided between two independent cities ( Rostock and the state capital Schwerin ), 28 other non-official cities, 54 official cities, 10 other non-official municipalities and 651 official municipalities.
The number of seats is regulated by law, depending on the size of the municipality. The Rostock citizenship has 53 seats, the city council of Schwerin 45 seats, the other municipal councils between 7 and 43 seats.
Elections to the district councils
Depending on their population size and area, the district councils of the six districts are equipped with a different number of seats. The districts of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Ludwigslust-Parchim each have 77 seats, the districts of Rostock , Vorpommern-Rügen and Vorpommern-Greifswald each have 69 seats and the district of Northwest Mecklenburg has 61 seats.
The districts are divided into several electoral areas, in which the parties or electoral communities can run with different nominations, i.e. with different candidates. In view of the enormous size of the districts since the district reform in 2011 , this should ensure a balanced local distribution of mandates. However, the parties and electoral communities usually set up well-known personalities in all electoral areas.
Mayoral elections
The mayors were re-elected in all municipalities administered on a voluntary basis (in the case of municipalities belonging to the office who do not run the office) . In the municipalities administered on a full-time basis, the term of office of the directly elected mayor, which lasts between seven and nine years, is not tied to the five-year electoral period of the municipal councils and takes place independently of the municipal council election. Nevertheless, in some places the municipal elections coincided with the mayoral election in 2019.
In Rostock , the largest city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the mayor was elected on May 26, 2019 . The previous incumbent, Roland Methling (non-party to the UFR electoral alliance), did not run again for reasons of age. Here the non-party entrepreneur Claus Ruhe Madsen , supported by the CDU and FDP, prevailed in the runoff election against Social Senator Steffen Bockhahn (Die Linke). Madsen, who is a Danish citizen, is the first mayor in a major German city without a German passport.
In official municipalities with honorary mayors, the term of office of the mayors is tied to the five-year electoral term of the municipal councils, so that both elections generally coincide. In some of these municipalities, however, a mayoral election could not take place in the local elections in 2019 because no candidates were available. This was the case for example in Heinrichswalde , Krugsdorf , Sarow , Verchen , Altenhagen and Bartow . In such cases, the municipal councils are obliged to elect a mayor from among their number at their first meeting. In 2014, the mayors of Heinrichswalde and Sarow were elected in this way.
Starting position
In the 2014 municipal elections , voter groups achieved the best results in more than half of the municipalities . Overall, they received the most votes with 33.7 percent. This was followed by the CDU with 29.4 percent, the SPD (12.5%), the Left (12.1%), the FDP (2.3%), Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen (2.1%) and the NPD (1.0%). Individual applicants received 6.9 percent of the vote.
The CDU achieved a majority of votes in 25 percent of the communities (192 communities), including an absolute majority in 113 communities. Strongholds of the CDU were in particular the communities in the districts of Vorpommern-Rügen and Vorpommern-Greifswald , where they received 33.7 and 30.6 percent of the votes. The left emerged as the election winner in only 2.5 percent of the municipalities (19 municipalities), including Rostock and Neubrandenburg . The SPD became the strongest force in only 2.8 percent of the communities (21 communities), including Wismar . The FDP and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen were election winners in seven and two smaller towns, respectively.
The results are put into perspective by the fact that the parties were represented with candidates to very different degrees. The CDU ran its own candidates in 477 of 755 communities, the Left in 261, the SPD in 233, the FDP in 95, Alliance 90 / The Greens in 48 and the NPD in 34 communities.
The turnout in the 2014 municipal council elections was 47.3 percent.
Candidates, campaigning and polls
In some regions of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the parties are not represented at all or only weakly. Some parties have therefore opened their lists to non-party members .
According to a survey by the Ostsee-Zeitung at the beginning of April 2019, the CDU was in first place with 29%, followed by the Free Voters and voter associations with 22%, as well as the party Die Linke (15%), SPD (14%), AfD ( 9%), Greens (8%) and FDP (3%).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , accessed on May 27, 2019.
- ^ The State Returning Officer Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , accessed on May 28, 2014.
- ↑ Law on elections in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (state and municipal election law - LKWG MV). In: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania service portal. Retrieved April 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Stefan Ludmann: Brits lose local voting rights in MV , ndr.de, January 10, 2019
- ↑ a b Thomas Köhler: There are no candidates for mayoral elections in MV. In: NDR.de . Norddeutscher Rundfunk , March 25, 2019, accessed on March 25, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Local and European elections in MV on May 26th. In: NDR.de . Norddeutscher Rundfunk , February 15, 2019, accessed on April 11, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Statistical Office Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Elections 2014 , Statistische Hefte Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 14th year, 2017, election booklet 2, p. 8
- ↑ Statistical Office Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Elections 2014 , Statistische Hefte Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 14th year, 2017, Wahlheft 2, p. 7
- ↑ End of May double voting in MV - outcome cannot be calculated. Ostsee-Zeitung , April 9, 2019, accessed on April 9, 2019 .
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