Dresden: Suspicion of electoral fraud in state elections in Saxony – police investigate

A suspicion overshadows the state election result in Saxony: irregularities occurred during the counting of postal votes in Dresden. The police in Dresden are investigating on suspicion of electoral fraud.

The background to this is dozens of manipulated ballot papers, as the police department announced on Tuesday. During the postal vote count for the state election in Saxony, manipulated ballot papers were discovered in at least two Dresden constituencies. Unknown persons had covered the cross on the ballot paper made by postal voters and instead made a cross for the right-wing extremist party Free Saxony. According to the current status, around 100 ballot papers have been affected by the manipulation. The “Sächsische Zeitung” first reported“ reported.

The Free Saxons received 2.2 percent of the vote in the state elections in Saxony In Dresden they reached 0.8 percent.

The suspect postal votes were counted in two polling stations set up at the Bürgerwiese high school and the Dresden Vocational School for Electrical Engineering. The latter show the irregularities.

“I only found out about these allegations today,” said Dresden’s election director Markus Blocher to the “Sächsische Zeitung” on Monday. “We will follow up on these leads.” A spokesman for the city of Dresden also confirmed the suspicions to the newspaper and explained that the irregularities affect electoral districts 36011 and 36012 in Langebrück.

Read our live ticker all current developments regarding the state elections

The suspicion of electoral fraud is to be investigated by the electoral committee as part of the election audit on September 5, 2024. Election officer Blocher indicated that the votes in question could possibly be declared invalid.

According to the report, the manipulated ballot papers arrived at the postal voting station already covered with tape. One possible explanation could be that the ballot papers come from central facilities such as retirement homes, where they were collected and then altered.

Election officer must correct result

On Monday, Saxony’s state election officer caused a stir when he had to correct the result of the state election. Due to a software error, an incorrect seat distribution had been published, the state election office announced. The Greens and the SPD each received one seat more, while the CDU and the AfD each lost one seat.

Due to the recalculation, the AfD lost the so-called blocking minority in the state. Despite the change, the previous coalition of CDU, Greens and SPD still does not have a majority in the new state parliament.

A blocking minority means that a party has more than a third of the seats in the state parliament. In this case, they can prevent certain state laws that are decided by a two-thirds majority of all MPs. In Saxony, as in other federal states, constitutional judges and the head of the state audit office are elected by a two-thirds majority of all parliamentarians. Certain posts could not have been filled without the AfD’s approval. It could also have prevented the state parliament from dissolving itself.

According to the corrected result, the CDU has 41 seats and the AfD 40. The BSW has 15 seats, the SPD ten, the Greens seven. The Left has six seats and the Free Voters one seat. There are a total of 120 seats in the Saxon state parliament.

According to the preliminary results, the CDU received 31.9 percent nationwide (2019: 32.1 percent). The AfD is just behind with 30.6 percent (27.5). The BSW achieved 11.8 percent from the start. The SPD landed at 7.3 percent (7.7). The Left Party slipped dramatically to 4.5 percent (10.4). The Greens received 5.1 percent (8.6). The FDP again missed out on a place in the state parliament with just 0.9 percent (4.5) – as it did in the last two state elections.