Municipal elections Mayor of Rapperswil-Jona SG goes to the second ballot

Martin Stöckling (FDP) has announced his candidacy for the second round of voting for the presidency of the town of Rapperswil-Jona. The incumbent mayor achieved the worst result of the three candidates in the first round of voting.

Stöckling, 49, wrote in a press release on Friday that he was once again entering the ring for re-election as mayor. He assured the voters, who had clearly shown him the yellow card in the first round of voting, that he had understood their message.

However, the city needs continuity and a leader with experience, stamina and good contacts with the government and parliament in St.Gallen. A policy independent of "backers" and "shadow kings" is needed.

Criticism before the elections

In the first round of voting on September 22, Barbara Dillier, who is not a party member, won 4,101 votes, but fell short of the absolute majority of 4,655 votes. With 2534 votes, the incumbent Stöckling finished behind the second challenger Boris Meier (2583 votes) from the GLP.

As Stöckling wrote on Friday, he decided to run again regardless of Meier's decision.

Before the elections, Stöckling came under fire for various projects, such as a controversial sale of land to a subsidiary of a Chinese company.

One of Stöckling's harshest critics was publisher Bruno Hug, who supported Stöckling in his first election in 2016 when he pushed the then mayor Erich Zoller (center) out of office.

Hug has since campaigned for Stöckling to be voted out of office. It was he who brought Barbara Dillier into play as an opposing candidate for the presidency of the second-largest city in the canton of St. Gallen.