Cloppenburg: AfD candidate accidentally rejects his own choice

The AfD won nine seats in the city council election in Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony. She can occupy only five: The party had not put up enough candidates. Now there is another failure. As the “Nordwest-Zeitung” reports, the directly elected Andreas Bluhm has accidentally rejected his mandate – with a cross on a form.

The city administration confirmed to the newspaper that the 66-year-old had “rejected his mandate in a written declaration submitted in due time”. This Decision cannot therefore be revoked. Bluhm would not have had to do anything to get the seat: If he had not filled out the letter and sent it back, the election would have been considered accepted.

“I was very keen to get to the city council,” Bluhm told the newspaper. Instead, he ticked the waiver on the preprint of the local election manager, signed the declaration and sent it back by post.

Why he made this mistake, he could not explain. Only on Tuesday he learned that he would not belong to the new city council. “I got really sick when I found out,” Bluhm told the newspaper. “I am very angry.”

The AfD received 22.29 percent of the vote in the election. In the previous city council, your faction consists of two people.