Local elections in Hamburg, Germany
The 2019 Hamburg borough elections were elections held in the seven boroughs of Hamburg on 26 May 2019. The Greens became the strongest party in five (later four) out of the seven boroughs.
Electoral system.
Similarly to the state- and prior elections, a list proportional system was used. Borough elections in Hamburg have a 3% electoral threshold.
Each voter had a total of ten votes: five constituency votes for the direct candidates in the constituency, and five at-large votes for candidates on the state lists (or for state lists in their entirety). The five votes could be amassed all on one person, party, or list (accumulation) or could be distributed/split between different candidates, parties, or lists as desired (panachage). Voting privileges were passively awarded, meaning anyone over the age of 16 meeting eligibility requirements was automatically enrolled.
Aftermath.
After the election, six members who were elected for the Green Party in Hamburg-Mitte refused to take part in the formation of the Green faction, instead opting to form their own faction named "Greens 2" ("Fraktion Grüne 2"). This was due to their party having levied allegations of extremism against them, after it was discovered that these members had contacts to Islamist organizations. On 2 October 2019, members of the faction Greens 2 announced that they would leave the Green party and join the SPD, which became the strongest faction in the borough through this move. Afterwards, the coalition of the SPD and Greens was dissolved in favour of a SPD-lead red-black-yellow coalition in December 2019.