Turnout surges in Saxony-Anhalt election as AfD leads polls

Turnout in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt was heading toward a record on Sunday as voters considered whether the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, could win an outright majority.

Regional election authorities reported that 65.3% of eligible voters had cast ballots by 4 p.m. local time. Around 1.7 million people were eligible to vote. At the same point in the 2021 election, turnout stood at 41%, while the final turnout that year reached 60.3%.

The latest figure had already surpassed the previous election’s total before polling stations closed at 6 p.m. The state’s record turnout came in 1998, eight years after German reunification, when 71.5% of eligible voters voted.

The AfD entered the election as the favorite. Regional officials responsible for interior affairs classify the party as a confirmed case of right-wing extremism, and recent polls gave it as much as 43% support, far ahead of its rivals. That result could give its lead candidate for state premier, Ulrich Siegmund, the numbers needed to form a government alone.

The Christian Democratic Union, led by state premier Sven Schulze, was polling at no more than 23%. Its coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, was on as much as 8.5%, while the liberal Free Democratic Party was below the 5% threshold for representation. The Left was projected to finish third with 11.5%, followed by the Greens at 6%.