Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) - A total of 20 candidates are running in the early mayoral election on March 5 in Frankfurt. This was determined by the municipal election committee on Friday. Nine candidates belong to a party already represented in the city parliament. The Green Party candidate, Manuela Rottmann, took first place on the ballot, followed by CDU candidate Uwe Becker and SPD candidate Mike Josef. The election will be brought forward after the previous incumbent, Peter Feldmann (SPD), was voted out in November.

The order on the ballot paper is based on the result of the parties in the last municipal election. The eleven other candidates were decided by lot. Among them are non-party applicants such as tram driver Peter Wirth, known beyond Frankfurt as "Bahnbabo", and Maja Wolff, the organizer of the Green Sauce Festival in Frankfurt. Another applicant was not admitted because he did not submit the necessary 186 signatures from supporters.

Feldmann was sentenced to a fine in December for accepting an advantage in the workers' welfare (Awo) affair. The verdict is not yet legally binding. Since he was voted out, Feldmann's deputy, the Green politician Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, has been in charge of official business.