Press release no. 39/21 of 16. September 2021

Bundestag election in the Ahr region: Polling buses will stop at several locations in the Ahr valley

WIESBADEN – Since 14 September 2021, mobile field offices of the authorities, referred to as polling buses, have been employed in the Ahr valley. The Land Statistical Office in Bad Ems reports that Federal Returning Officer Dr. Georg Thiel and Land Returning Officer Marcel Hürter visited Rech an der Ahr on 16 September to directly obtain information about how the Bundestag election is organised in the disaster zone.

The concrete measures taken to conduct the Bundestag election in the Ahr municipalities particularly affected by the flood had been presented by Dr. Georg Thiel and Marcel Hürter at a Federal Press Conference on 31 August 2021 in Berlin. At the conference, explanations were also given on the mobile field offices of the authorities which will enable people to cast their vote.

In the period from 14 to 24 September 2021, all parts of the municipality of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler and all municipalities of the municipal association of Altenahr will be visited several times by polling buses and gazebo tents will be set up. In the administrative field offices thus set up, people will then be able to apply for a postal vote and to directly cast their vote.

“Thanks to the joint efforts of the municipalities, of the Land forest administration of Rheinland-Pfalz and the university of public administration of Rheinland-Pfalz, which locally support postal voting especially by providing staff, and the Land Returning Officer, an infrastructure has been set up enabling people in the Ahr valley to cast their vote in the Bundestag election”, said Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel, praising the organisers during his visit. He added: “Electoral law and regulations provide provisions that make it possible to hold the election in a regular and legally secure way even under the current difficult conditions.” Thiel and Hürter thanked the municipalities involved, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the forest administration and the university of public administration. Without their commitment it would not be possible to prepare and conduct the Bundestag election in the Ahr region.

Information on the Bundestag election in the Ahr region

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