Berlin's head of election receives new power: Reform ensures smooth elections!

Berlin's head of election receives new power: Reform ensures smooth elections!

Berlin, Deutschland - On April 10, 2025, the Berlin House of Representatives decided to significantly expand the competencies of the state election manager. The new draft law takes consequences from the breakdown of the last election in 2021 and aims to modernize and strengthen the election organization in the capital. In the future, the state election manager Stephan Bröchler will receive more powers and intervention rights to the districts in order to ensure smooth voting preparation and implementation. These reforms are the result of recommendations by an expert commission in which Bröchler himself was involved and can be seen as an important step towards a modern electoral law.

The new state election law will in future be able to uniformly equip the polling stations and to organize the training of the election helpers centrally, instead of the districts before. These changes are intended to ensure that the elections take place more reliably and transparently for citizens. In addition to strengthening the position of the state election manager, the district voting offices are also better equipped in order to improve the continuous implementation of the election organization work.

extended powers and independence

The now expanded scope of action of the state election manager also includes instructions for instructions to the state election office. It is independent and free of instructions, which means that he can act freely from political influences. His new tasks include issuing orders towards the district election managers in order to enable close cooperation from both the country and districts. In addition, the state election manager has a right of lecture on the governing mayor and is obliged to regularly report reports to the Senate.

Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) praises the new regulation as a crucial step to stabilize the election organization in Berlin. She emphasizes that the reforms will help strengthen the trust of citizens in the election processes. After the breakdown of 2021, the essential reforms are practically complete with this amendment to the law. One last piece of the puzzle represents the upcoming adaptation of the state electoral code that still has to be made.

a modern electoral law

The necessity of these far -reaching changes in the law was previously emphasized by Stephan Bröchler several times. At first he criticized that his powers were not sufficient to effectively monitor the election organization. With the adoption of the new state election law, he sees the basis for the future design of the elections in Berlin. It is particularly important to him to improve the processes in the election organization and the equipment of the polling stations to guarantee a uniform and fair choice.

Overall, the new state election law not only brings a fresh wind to the election organization, but also strengthens the infrastructure that is necessary to carry out the elections in the capital effectively and trustworthy. The reforms show that past mistakes have been learned and that Berlin is ready to make his election processes future -proof.