Nearly 4.7 million citizens will be able to cast their votes in municipal elections in the German federal state of Hesse on March 15. For the first time in five years, residents will elect municipal and district councils. Approximately 430,000 citizens of other European Union countries also have the right to vote. Statewide results will not be known until the following days due to the complexity of the procedure.
Date and eligible voters
Elections are scheduled for March 15. 4.7 million people are eligible, including 430,000 EU citizens who are not German.
Return to the old allocation method
The court ruled the new d'Hondt method unconstitutional. The elections will proceed using the previous, established system.
Extended vote counting
Municipal elections are complex, with voters casting more votes. Full results will be announced by the statistical office in the following days.
Mayoral elections and foreign residents' councils
Mayoral elections, including in Hanau, and elections for councils representing non-EU citizens will be held concurrently.
Municipal elections will be held in the German federal state of Hesse on March 15. This is the first such vote in five years. Nearly 4.7 million people are eligible to participate, with around 430,000 residents who are citizens of other European Union countries also having voting rights in addition to German citizens. Voters will decide the composition of councils in 21 districts and all municipalities.
Municipal elections in Hesse are held every five years. The electoral system is based on proportional representation, which has undergone modifications over decades. In 2021, the CDU and SPD coalition introduced a new method for allocating seats, which has now been overturned by the court.In addition to elections for municipal and district councils, mayoral elections will also take place on March 15 in about a dozen localities, including the city of Hanau, which will gain independent city status from the beginning of 2026. Simultaneously, elections for foreign residents' councils (foreign residents' councils) will be held. The voting procedure is complex because voters in municipal elections cast more votes than in state parliament (Landtag) or federal parliament (Bundestag) elections. This is due to the need to elect multiple candidates for various local bodies.
4 700 000 — people eligible to voteThe extended vote-counting process means that complete, official results at the statewide level will not be known on election day. Only preliminary, exit poll results (trends) for individual municipalities will be available early in the evening of March 15. Official, verified results will be announced by the Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt based in Wiesbaden in the days following the vote. A key pre-election issue was a recent ruling by the Hesse State Constitutional Court. The court found that the new seat allocation method using the d'Hondt system (d'Hondt method), introduced by the CDU-SPD coalition, is unconstitutional under the state's constitution because it excessively favors large parties. Consequently, the upcoming elections will revert to the previously used, traditional vote-counting method. At the national level, these elections are considered an important test of political sentiment, although their outcome rarely translates directly into changes at the federal level.
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