New date for mayoral election
City Council decides on by-election on 20 September 2020
At its meeting today, Chemnitz City Council decided on the date for the by-election for the mayoral election. The new Lord Mayor for the term of office from 2020 to 2027 will be elected on Sunday, 20 September 2020. Should a second ballot be necessary, this has been set for Sunday, 11 October 2020.
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the original election date of 14 June 2020 was cancelled by the Saxony State Directorate as the legal supervisory authority due to force majeure and a by-election - on 20 September 2020 at the earliest - was ordered.
If there is a maximum of six months between the cancelled election and the new date, the by-election can be held as a "repeat election" (in accordance with Section 29 KomWG). In this case, only those election preparations that have been expressly ordered to be repeated by the legal supervisory authority must be renewed. For the day of the by-election now set for 20 September 2020, the holding of the election must be announced again in the Chemnitz official gazette in mid-June.
The deadline for submitting election proposals and the deadline for collecting supporting signatures ends on 16 July 2020, 6 p.m.
Explanation:
Election cancellation, by-election (KomWG, Section 31) describes the procedure if an election cannot be held due to force majeure or for any other reason. The legal supervisory authority must then cancel the election and order a by-election at the same time.
Repeat election (KomWG, § 29): If an election is cancelled due to force majeure or any other reason, the city council must immediately order a repeat election. In this case, the preparations for the election are only to be renewed to the extent that this is necessary following the legally binding decision of the supervisory authority. However, the re-election is only permissible within a period of six months after the date of the cancelled election. Otherwise, a new election would be necessary, in which all preparations for the election would have to be renewed.