The Wahl-o-Mat for the Saxon state elections is online. There, users can state their position on 38 theses on state political issues, which the tool compares with the parties’ answers. All 19 parties registered for the state election took part.
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An editorial team made up of young voters, experts from science, journalism and education in Saxony as well as those responsible from the state and federal centres for political education prepared the theses. Wahl-O-Mat It asks, for example, whether lignite should still be mined in Saxony in 2038. It is also about arms deliveries to Ukraine, top notes in schools, the expansion of wind power and a “ban on dancing” on Good Friday.
Federal Government: China responsible for attack on federal agency in 2021“The Wahl-O-Mat is not a tool for voting recommendations, but rather a tool for political education that aims to help voters find out about the positions of the parties,” emphasizes Roland Löffler, director of the Saxon State Center for Political Education. “The purpose is to be politically informed, politically involved and to have a better understanding of what is being debated in this state election.”
The Saxon state parliament, like the Thuringian one, will be elected on September 1. Voters in Brandenburg will be called to the polls on September 22. The Wahl-o-Mat for Thuringia is scheduled to take place online on August 6, followed by Brandenburg on August 26.
“Your appetite for more information will grow.”
First-time and second-time voters in particular rarely go to the polls, says Pamela Brandt of the Federal Agency for Civic Education. Above all, you want to take them with the Wahl-O-Mat. “Many people are not clear where the differences between the parties are.” The online tool then serves as an “appetizer for more information.”
After its activation, top politicians from seven parties represented in the state parliament or with a real chance of being elected were the first to test the online tool. Also present: CDU Secretary General Alexander Dierks, MP Alexander Wiesner (AfD), Left chairmen Susanne Schaper and Stephan Hartmann, Green Party chairwomen Christin Furtenbacher and Marie Mueser, SPD education policy spokeswoman Sabine Friedel, deputy FDP chairman Thomas Kunz and BSW board member Andreas Uhlig. Among all of them, their own party clearly came in first place, sometimes with 100 percent consent.
The Wahl-o-Mat has existed since 2002, since then it has been used in European Parliament, state and federal elections and has been accessed more than 130 million times. Before the 2019 state elections in Saxony, the Wahl-o-Mat was accessed around 590,000 times – 200,000 times more than five years earlier, according to Löffler.
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