Erfurt (dpa/th) - In Thuringia, around 210,000 men and women are called for the mayoral election on June 12. The posts will be redefined in 325 municipalities, as the President of the State Statistical Office, Holger Poppenhäger, said in Erfurt on Monday. In addition to seven full-time and 318 honorary municipal representatives, 117 local and district mayors are also to be elected.
According to Poppenhäger, 406 candidates are running for the mayoral election. Of these, 76 are women. Compared to the last mayoral election, their share has increased to almost 19 percent (2016: 17.2 percent). Most applicants are running as non-partisan candidates.
Interior Secretary Katharina Schenk described the candidacy of well-known Thuringian right-wing extremist Tommy Frenck, who is running against the incumbent Wolfgang Möller in Kloster Veßra (district of Hildburghausen), as "worrying". According to the Thuringian intelligence report, Frenck runs an inn in Kloster Veßra, which, as a well-known trendy property, attracts right-wing extremists from all over Germany and Europe. The Secretary of State for the Interior said that if Frenck were to win the election, the local election law would prohibit him from taking office because he was not acting on the basis of the basic democratic order.
According to the State Statistical Office, there is still no name on the ballot in 22 municipalities. This affects 6.8 percent of the municipalities (2016: 8.1 percent). After the last election in 2016, despite the initially empty ballot papers, all functions could have been filled, said Poppenhäger.
Secretary of State Schenk called on young people in particular to exercise their right to vote. You can go to the polls in local elections from the age of 16. The term of office of the honorary mayors usually lasts six years and expires at the end of June. Most of the full-time city leaders as well as the district administrators will not be re-elected until 2024. According to the information, around 3,000 election workers are ready for the upcoming mayoral elections. The runoff elections are then to take place on June 26th.
