Runoff elections in Lower Saxony: polling stations closed

The counting begins: The polling stations in Lower Saxony close. From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., millions of Lower Saxony were called to vote again - in places where no one was able to secure an absolute majority in the mayoral and district council elections two weeks ago. The two best placed in the first round were up for election.

The focus is, among other things, on the mayoral election in Hanover. The question is: Can incumbent Belit Onay (Greens) keep his office or will the Social Democrats regain their former stronghold with Axel von der Ohe. Onay clearly won the first round of voting and almost won an absolute majority two weeks ago.

Elections were also held again in the Hanover region: Eva Bender (SPD) and Oliver Junk (CDU) ran. In Göttingen, the citizens decided between Onyeka Oshionwu (Greens) and Ehsan Kangarani (CDU). Until now, the town hall there was in SPD hands.

AfD could prevail for the first time

For the first time, the AfD could also win a top municipal office in Lower Saxony. She still has three candidates in the race: In Salzgitter, Patricia Mair is dueling with Mayor Frank Klingebiel (CDU), who has been in office since 2006. In Munster in the Heidekreis, individual applicant Anna Adamczak is competing against Christoph Weynand from the AfD, and in Bockenem near Hildesheim, individual applicant Jens Lüer is competing against AfD candidate Felix Mull. In all three cases, the AfD candidates were significantly behind in the first round.

A total of 123 runoff elections are taking place today - from the Hanover region with around 888,000 eligible voters to the Bodenfelde area in the Northeim district with only around 2,500 eligible voters. Traditionally, voter turnout is likely to be lower than in the first round of voting. In the city of Hanover, for example, at 5 p.m. it was around 15 percentage points lower than two weeks ago - 45.2 instead of 60.9 percent.