"Software error": AfD loses blocking minority after election officer changes seat allocation

The AfD has achieved a blocking minority in Saxony with 41 MPs. But the election officer now says he miscalculated. The AfD loses the decisive seat to the SPD, but could win it back in a different and completely unexpected way.

Dresden - Saxony's state election officer has subsequently changed the distribution of seats in the state parliament. This means that the AfD has lost its 41st mandate, which would have given it a blocking minority. Until then, it had a third of the MPs plus one parliamentarian. The authority cited a "software error" as the cause of the initially incorrect calculation.

Representatives of other parties and experts from Wahlrecht.de had accused the election officer of using an incorrect seat allocation procedure. The CDU also lost a seat to the Greens, who now received seven seats instead of six.

SPD will get AfD seat
The critics complained that the number of votes given to the parties would have resulted in different party sizes in the state parliament according to the Sainte-Laguë seat allocation procedure. The election officer now agreed with them. And the CDU only got 41 seats instead of the 42 previously calculated. The same is true of the AfD, which slipped from 41 to 40.

Since the state parliament has 120 seats, the AfD only has exactly one third of the representatives. All other factions - CDU, Left, SPD, BSW and Greens - now have a two-thirds majority and can change the constitution and fill judges' seats without the AfD.

The seat that the AfD loses goes to the SPD faction. This means that the SPD will have ten parliamentarians instead of the previous nine. However, the majority ratio for government participation will not change. In addition to the SPD and the Greens, the CDU needs at least one other party - either the BSW or the Left. Or it will replace the Greens with the BSW.

Will the Free Voters switch to the AfD faction?

Meanwhile, another surprise could occur and the AfD could regain its blocking minority: The non-party mayor of Grimma, Matthias Berger, has won a direct mandate for the Free Voters. He is considered close to the AfD. If he joins the AfD faction, it would again have 41 mandates.

Source: Junge Freiheit