Polling Stations Close In Germany With Very High Turnout
Election assistants prepare the vote count of postal ballots for the federal elections, in Berlin, Germany, 23 February 2025. About 60 million people are eligible to vote in the German elections for a new federal parliament, the 21st Bundestag. Photo: EFE/EPA/MARTIN DIVISEK
February 23, 2025 Hour: 1:37 pm
The polling stations at the general elections in Germany closed this Sunday after a day with a very high turnout, expected to reach more than 84% participation.
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According to polls, the conservatives of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) started as clear favorites and in which the far right could remain as the second most voted force.
The schools closed their doors at 17.00 GMT after ten hours of voting in the polls, to which nearly 60 million citizens with voting rights were called.
Four hours before close, voter turnout was 52%, according to the Central Electoral Commission, a figure that does not include mail-in voting, but which was “very high” compared with 36.5% registered at 13.00 GMT in the 2021 elections.
In 2021, total voter turnout was 76.4%, the highest since the 2005 elections. The previous highest figure in Germany was 91.1% in 1972.
The day proceeded without incidents that disrupted the normal course of voting, although there was an alarming situation that resulted in the arrest of a man who, armed with a knife, insulted the officials at the polling station in a voting center in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the west.
In the coastal city of Rostock, in the northeast, a polling station was vandalized with graffiti of swastikas, a symbol that is punishable in Germany for being unconstitutional, and with insults towards antifascists.
In Cottbus, another city in eastern Germany, several polling stations were affected by a power outage that had been impacting the northern part of the city since Saturday.
Germany’s election day was marked by calls for citizen participation, such as that of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Friedrich Merz of the CDU emphasised the importance of each vote, while Olaf Scholz, the current SPD chancellor, was seen exercising before voting.
According to surveys, the SPD is expected to be in third place with 15%, behind the far-right, which could reach about 21%, and ahead of the Greens with 13%. Mention was also made of the possible entry of the Left into Parliament and uncertainty about other parties such as the FDP and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, which need at least 5% of the votes to be represented.
Autor: ACJ
Fuente: EFE