Voter turnout plummeted to just 29 per cent in the mayoral election in Ludwigshafen, an industrial city in Southwestern Germany.
Many inhabitants apparently chose to boycott the ballot yesterday following the ban of the mayoral candidate of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party shortly before the vote.
Out of an electorate of more than 118,000 people only 34,631 voters or 29.3 per cent cast their vote – compared to a turnout of 60.2 per cent in the first round of the last mayoral elections in 2017.
In addition, the official count of the City of Ludwigshafen lists 3,201 invalid votes – 9.2 per cent of the total number of votes.
The election there had gained notoriety beforehand after the AfD candidate, Joachim Paul, on August 5 had been banned from running, seven weeks before the election.
Local newspaper Rheinpfalz reported yesterday that many AfD supporters had written Paul’s name on their ballots, even though this rendered them invalid.
Paul himself told press agency dpa he would challenge the election in court, saying: “We are determined to contest the election. Whether this will be after the first round or after the run-off, my lawyers will have to clarify.”
In the first round yesterday, Conservative candidate Klaus Blettner (CDU) got 41 per cent of the vote while Jens Gotter (Social Democrats, SPD) came in second with 35 per cent. Blettner and Gotter will now face each other in a run-off ballot.
Blettner told Welt TV he was surprised about the low turnout. He surmised it was due to the fact that the mayoral election did not coincide with any State or federal elections this time, saying: “A standalone mayoral election – that was a first for Ludwigshafen. I believe that this, combined with the Joachim Paul affair, led to this low voter turnout.”
Paul had been excluded by an election committee manned by his political opponents. The committee members voted with a six to one majority that Paul should not be allowed to run as he “lacked constitutional loyalty”.
Committee members said they had followed recommendations from the administration of the State of Rhineland Palatinate, including the State interior ministry in Mainz.
The ministry – which is run by Social Democrat politician Michael Elbing (SPD) – had compiled a list of reasons for recommending Paul’s exclusion. They included the fact that he had commended the oeuvre of British fantasy author J R Tolkien, specifically the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as “especially valuable for modern Conservatism” in a newspaper article.
Paul has appealed the committee’s decision in several courts. Judges upheld the decision before the election. A suit in front of the German Federal Constitutional Court is still ongoing.
The ban of the AfD candidate has even made headlines overseas, with Paul joining an AfD delegation on an invitation to the White House in Washington earlier in September.
