A delegation from the Congress of the Council of Europe observed local and regional elections to the Berlin House of Representatives as well as Berlin District Councils in Germany on 12 February 2023. These elections represented a re-run of the elections of 26 September 2021, which were declared invalid by the Berlin Constitutional Court on 16 November 2022. On election day, six Congress teams comprising 14 participants from 12 countries were deployed to all 12 districts of Berlin and visited over 80 polling stations, observing electoral procedures from opening to closing, including the counting of regular and postal votes in six polling stations.
“Yesterday’s repeat elections constituted an important step contributing to secure citizens’ trust in the act of voting in Berlin,” stated the head of delegation Vladimir Prebilic (Slovenia, SOC/G/PD) at a media briefing in Berlin. Overall, the delegation observed a calm and orderly election day, without major incidents or anomalies. “The situation that led to a number of irregularities in the September 2021 elections does not seem to have affected the confidence of the people of Berlin, as evidenced by the good turnout,” underlined the head of delegation, highlighting the significant efforts made to conduct these elections.
However, the preliminary conclusions call for clarification of the distribution of responsibilities between the main actors in local and regional elections in Berlin. In addition, improvements could be made in particular concerning the ballot boxes so that they are sealed in a unified way to secure the votes, and by using transparent ballot boxes. The conditions for sending voting material to polling station presidents could be improved, as the current system imposes an excessive burden and may pose a risk to the integrity of electoral material.
The draft report and recommendation will be submitted for adoption at the 44th Congress session on 21 March.
