On 17 October, the people of Bernburg will have to decide in a run-off election who will succeed the mayor Henry Schütze, who is retiring for reasons of age. The two candidates Silvia Ristow (Die Linke) and Thomas Gruschka (CDU), who were considered favourites in the run-up to the election, received the most votes and will fight for the chief seat in Bernburg’s town hall in three weeks.
In the mayoral election on Sunday, the 58-year-old mayor won 39.2 per cent of the votes, ahead of the 50-year-old managing director of Bernburger Freizeit GmbH (31.9 per cent). Ristow’s lead was 1,208.
On 17 October, the people of Bernburg must finally decide who will emerge victorious from this duel. After counting the ballots in the 23 polling stations in Bernburg and its districts, as well as the postal vote, which was used by almost one fifth of the voters, the AfD candidate Henriette Hellfritsch-Hüttl (43) with 14.3 per cent and the individual candidate Kai Mehliß (51) with 14.7 per cent missed the run-off quite clearly.
The voter turnout was 61.8 per cent. This is clearly above the level of the 2015 election for mayor, when only 27.2 per cent cast their vote and incumbent Henry Schütze (no party affiliation) was able to march through with a commanding 73.9 per cent in the first round of voting.