In a constituency in Berlin’s Lichtenberg district, there is no stalemate between two direct candidates for the House of Representatives – so the mandates don’t have to be filled by lot. CDU candidate Dennis Haustein wins the direct mandate in the constituency with 4252 first votes, as district returning officer Axel Hunger announced on Monday when the preliminary result was publicly announced. The left’s competitor, Claudia Engelmann, follows eight votes behind – she accounted for 4244.
District Returning Officer Hunger pointed out that the district election committee had no right to demand a recount. Last week it looked as if Haustein and Engelmann had received exactly the same number of votes. The left had then called for a check count in the entire constituency.
After the re-election to the Berlin House of Representatives, Haustein led in the Lichtenberg constituency 3 with ten votes ahead of the Left candidate. On the Wednesday after the election, however, 466 ballot letters that had accidentally been left behind in the district were subsequently counted – with Engelmann receiving 35 and Haustein 25 additional first votes, so that both were tied.
According to the electoral regulations, in such a tie the lot would have to decide who wins the direct mandate. According to the preliminary result, this stalemate no longer exists.
