AfD initiates investigation after software glitch

Following the software glitch in the allocation of seats in the new state parliament in Saxony, the AfD has initiated an investigation. "We want to know exactly what went wrong," said the Saxon AfD state and parliamentary group leader Jörg Urban in a statement. He demanded an exact error analysis. "If there are any irregularities, we will take legal action."

The error was caused by a software error, which initially resulted in an incorrect number of mandates being published for the individual parties. After a review, the state electoral administration corrected the distribution of seats. The AfD now has one seat less than initially stated. According to the corrected result, the party has 40 seats and thus loses the so-called blocking minority. There are 120 seats in the Saxon state parliament.

No one is being accused of deliberate manipulation, emphasized Urban. "This case is about the AfD's political influence in the Saxon state parliament. Any doubt about the final election result must therefore be ruled out."

Blocking minority means that a party has more than one third of the seats in the state parliament. In this case, it can prevent certain state laws from being passed with a two-thirds majority of all MPs. In Saxony, as in other federal states, constitutional judges and the head of the state court of auditors, for example, are elected by a two-thirds majority of all members of parliament. Certain posts could therefore not have been filled without AfD approval. It could also have prevented the state parliament from dissolving itself.