A counting error in Berlin's Spandau district has shifted a direct mandate from the CDU to the AfD, according to Tagesspiegel. The same problem will leave the city's Abgeordnetenhaus, or state parliament, with five fewer lawmakers.
Tagesspiegel reports that the mix-up narrows the possible majorities in the chamber, making coalition arithmetic harder as parties weigh their options.
The glitch is the latest in a series of election mishaps in the German capital, which multiple outlets covered. Welt describes the outcome plainly: the direct seat goes to the AfD rather than the CDU, and the parliament ends up smaller. rbb24 also reports the chamber losing five members. Spiegel ties the episode specifically to Spandau, where the AfD took the direct mandate instead of the CDU. BILD, for its part, frames the incident as yet another ballot failure in Berlin.
Taken together, the reports point to a single administrative error with two consequences: a seat changing hands between parties, and a reduced overall size for the legislature. Tagesspiegel's headline stresses the second effect, noting that the majorities available in the Abgeordnetenhaus are getting smaller.
The material does not specify the exact vote margin, the date of the original election, or how officials plan to correct the result. Those details were not included in the available reporting.
What to watch next: whether Berlin's election authorities formally review the Spandau count and confirm the final distribution of seats.
