by Saturday
Sun Sep 18th, 2005 at 09:35:13 AM EST
Joschka Fischer phrased it very nicely: "Today, politicians have to keep silent. It is the time for the voters to speak."
Today, the 16th Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany is being elected. 62 Million eligible voters can decide. According to several media reports, voter turnout until noon was slightly higher than last time (in 2002, turnout was at 79%). In North Rhine Westphalia, turnout seems to be higher than in 2002 (might be good for SPD), while voting in Bavaria went comparatively slowly this morning (might be bad for CDU/CSU). Nonetheless, most pundits predict a narrow CDU/CSU-FDP win.
If today's results should be too close to call, the decision could be delayed until October 6 or 7 when the Dresden constituency (election district 160) votes. Voting there had to be postponed because of the death of a direct candidate.
Polling stations will close at 18.00 MEST. From that time on, prognoses and results will drop in. Here are some links:
- The Federal Returning Officer: Official results from the election districts as they come in.
- election.de: Really nice electoral maps (Java). I do not know how often they will be updated; just try!
- Tagesschau: Here, public TV channel ARD provides an internet live stream of its election coverage.
The following links provide the most recent projections, as they are made public by the TV channels.
