Investigations in East Germany Thousands of election documents disappear - suspected manipulation

The public prosecutor's office is investigating a mayoral election in Brandenburg. Election manipulation is suspected. Thousands of postal voting documents are conspicuously missing.

DPA

24.02.2026, 15:28

dpa

Following a criminal complaint of electoral fraud in a mayoral election in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, the public prosecutor's office is investigating an initial suspicion.

The district administrator of the Märkisch-Oderland district, Gernot Schmidt, had declared the first round of voting in the town of Strausberg invalid due to suspected irregularities and filed criminal charges against persons unknown. He also sees irregularities in connection with mayoral candidate Patrick Hübner.

Hübner received the most votes in the first round of voting on February 15 with 22.5 percent. He was due to go into the run-off on March 15 with candidate Annette Binder (non-party), who received 21.2 percent.

Hübner has a coffee roasting business, which also houses the post office box for Strausberg, a town of 28,000 inhabitants to the east of Berlin. The election documents submitted by post arrived there. Hübner's share of postal votes was 30 percent, and up to 21 percent for the other candidates.

Fewer election letters than usual were returned

Schmidt wrote to the city that it was noticeable that an "unusually large proportion of election letters" had not found their way back from the voter to the electoral authority. More than 4,000 ballot letters had been issued and sent out, but only 2,835 had been returned to the electoral authority. That was around 30 percent less - a tenth is normal.

In addition, Hübner had documented the number of declining ballot letters on his own initiative and not, as usual, Deutsche Post, which had thus relinquished neutral control. A DHL Group spokeswoman said that the allegations were being investigated.

Hübner rejects the accusation. "I can't agree with it, and I can't understand it from my position either," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). "When the postal voting documents come in, they are counted, written down and collected on the same day." He could not explain why more than 1,100 letters had not been returned.

Cancellation of a mayoral election is a rare occurrence in Germany, but there have been a few cases in recent years.

"The public prosecutor's office is examining whether or not there are sufficient factual indications of a criminal offense from the complaint," senior public prosecutor Ricarda Böhme in Frankfurt (Oder) told dpa.