A European parliamentarian, Fabio De Masi, has questioned the legitimacy of the German federal election results. According to a report by the Handelsblatt, De Masi claimed that the outcome of the election was influenced by the delayed delivery of absentee ballots to German expatriates, which resulted in a difference of approximately 13,000 votes. This number of votes, he stated, could have changed the outcome of the election.
The Bund für Soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Linkspartei (Left Party) has announced that it will challenge the election results in court, potentially taking the case to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
The party’s co-leaders, Sahra Wagenknecht and Amira Mohamed Ali, have also stated that they will investigate the election results and may take legal action if necessary.
De Masi, in a social media post, criticized the lack of timely delivery of absentee ballots to German expatriates, which he claimed affected the outcome of the election. The party’s co-leaders have also expressed similar concerns.
The public broadcaster, Öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunk (ÖRR), has denied any involvement in the release of exit polls, which were widely disseminated in the media and allegedly influenced the election outcome.
The Left Party’s failure to pass the 5% threshold in the election means that a possible coalition between the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party now has a majority in the German Bundestag. If the Left Party had entered the Bundestag, the Christian Democratic Union would have had to form a coalition with a third party.
The delayed delivery of absentee ballots and the lack of timely notification of the election to German expatriates have been reported by several media outlets in the past weeks, causing concerns among expatriate voters.