No election posters at Christmas: Shorter deadline for street campaigning

The street campaign ahead of the likely repeat election of Berlin's House of Representatives will be somewhat shorter than usual.

The state parliament decided on Monday to allow parties to hang or put up election posters six weeks before the election instead of the normal seven weeks. If the repeat election does indeed take place on February 12, as has been indicated so far, posters would go up on January 01, 2023.

Amendment adopted unanimously

Parliament unanimously adopted a corresponding amendment to the Road Act. It only applies in the event of a repeat election or a new election. In the case of regular elections, it remains the case that posters may be put up seven weeks before the date. The Berlin Constitutional Court will decide this Wednesday (November 16) whether the election to the House of Representatives on September 26, 2021, must be repeated because of electoral errors. On September 28 of this year, the court had very clearly considered a complete repetition at an oral hearing. Should it declare the election invalid in its ruling, the rerun election would have to take place within 90 days until mid-February - the probable date is then considered to be February 12.

Start of the street election camp on January 01, 2023

According to the amendment now made to the Law on Streets, street campaigning would start six weeks before the deadline, i.e. from New Year's Day. If the seven-week period had remained, election posters would have been allowed to hang from December 25, that is, from Christmas. Such a scenario, which no one in the political establishment wanted, has now been prevented by the House of Representatives.