The AfD politician Rolf Weigand has been elected mayor of Großschirma. He received 82 percent of the vote on Sunday. The voter turnout was around 77 percent. Weigand was the only candidate in the repeat mayoral election, as no other nominations were submitted.
The former member of the state parliament had already received almost 60 percent of the vote in March in the election in the municipality of 5,500 inhabitants in Central Saxony. At that time, two opposing candidates from the CDU and the Independent Citizens' Association stood. However, the municipal supervisory authority later declared the election invalid due to breaches of election regulations, meaning it had to be repeated.
Mayors in Saxony are elected for seven years. If there is only one candidate, as is now the case in Großschirma, voters can also write down another person on their ballot paper if they do not want to vote for the candidate, according to the Local Elections Act.
