Gießen/Marburg (dpa/lhe) - The result of the mayoral election in Marburg is valid. On Tuesday, the Giessen Administrative Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by two citizens who wanted the ballot of March 28, 2021 to be declared invalid. From the point of view of the judges, however, there are no irregularities that would lead to the result being conceded, as the court announced.
In the runoff election at the time, incumbent Thomas Spies (SPD) was confirmed as head of town hall with 50.2 percent of the votes, challenger Nadine Bernhausen from the Greens received 49.8 percent. According to the court, Spies had won by a margin of 95 votes. The plaintiffs saw a violation of the principle of equal elections because 188 postal votes were not taken into account in the counting. These were only received after the polling stations had closed.
The plaintiffs were of the opinion that the specified interval of two weeks between the first ballot and the run-off election was too short. The court explained the reasoning that it had to be assumed that, due to the pandemic, more voters would make use of the option of postal voting and that they would have to adapt to this in organizational terms. In addition, according to the plaintiffs, Mayor Spies violated his duty of neutrality during the election campaign.
The court found that the interval between the votes was "ambitious". "However, the ballot letters could have been sent out in good time so that, with the exception of a few individual cases that would not have affected the overall result, all voters would have been able to cast their votes in good time." The corona pandemic did not affect the transport of the letters. The judges also denied that Spies violated his duty of neutrality.
The decision is not yet final. The plaintiffs can apply to the Hessian Administrative Court in Kassel to allow the appeal.
