Schwerin (dpa/mv) - The state returning officer will not currently initiate an examination as to whether Science Minister Bettina Martin (SPD) really has her main focus in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and was therefore right to run for the state parliament last year. A doubt that was merely expressed "without any further concrete factual presentation" is not enough, said state returning officer Christian Boden on Friday at the request of the German Press Agency.
The General Secretary of the CDU Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Daniel Peters, had previously expressed the suspicion that Martin could have violated the right to register or the state election law or the law on members of parliament. Although she is registered with her main residence in Schwerin, her main place of life is in Kleinmachnow near Berlin. You don't stay in MV essentially. According to a CDU spokesman, she lives in Kleinmachnow with her husband. So she could not actually run for the state parliament in MV. In the 2021 state election, Martin won the direct mandate in constituency 36 in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district.
A spokesman for Minister Martin had rejected the allegations as false. Martin has her main residence in Schwerin, he explained on request. Her work as a state minister and member of parliament means that she has her main focus in life in MV. Martin was Minister of Education from 2019 to 2021.
State Returning Officer Boden explained that if the doubts were to be further substantiated, an inquiry to the registration authority would be an option. The determination of an apartment as the main residence is a "determining administrative act" by the responsible registration authority. Main residence in MV is a requirement for someone to be able to run for state parliament.
