Berlin’s former interior and current building senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) in need of explanation
Photo: dpa/Christoph Soeder
In the discussion about a repeat of the breakdown elections from September last year, the air is getting thinner for Berlin’s building senator Andreas Geisel (SPD). The suspicion that is now in the room: Geisel, Senator for the Interior until the end of 2021, had known for years about deficiencies in the election organization in the capital. As the “Tagesspiegel” reported at the weekend, an investigation report classified as confidential by the internal administration he heads and other authorities is said to have come to the conclusion after IT problems in the 2017 federal election that in Berlin “organizational forms and rules for the proper preparation and Conducting of elections is missing«.
A spokesman for Geisel confirmed the report, but emphasized that the sole aim of this was to “clarify technical issues” and cooperation between the internal administration, the statistical office, the IT service center and the state election authority “in questions of IT stability to improve”. So it was not at all about “general recommendations for the organization of elections”.
Geisel himself did not comment on the subject. However, he had already emphasized last week that he was only responsible for the legal and not the technical supervision of the elections, which were ultimately accompanied by chaotic circumstances. It’s not that he doesn’t feel a “responsibility,” but he didn’t organize the election. Geisel strictly rejected a resignation, as demanded by the opposition, but also occasionally in the base of the left. However, it seems clear that the chair of the confidante of the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) is wobbling alarmingly.
Meanwhile, Berlin’s new state returning officer, Stephan Bröchler, does not want to waste any time preparing for a possible repetition of the parliamentary elections, even if the verdict of the state constitutional court is still pending. »There is no alternative. The tenor of the court is so clear that it would be negligent not to make any preparations,” said Bröchler. Topics such as paper supply, training concepts for election workers and the question of which polling stations are available must be clarified before the verdict is announced. “We can’t wait until there is a final judgment,” said the administrative scientist, who has been officially in office since Saturday.
At an oral hearing on the validity of the election to the House of Representatives in September 2021 on Wednesday, the Berlin Constitutional Court surprisingly clearly considered a complete repetition. The verdict should be spoken by the end of the year, the latest election date would then be the end of March 2023.With dpa
