After winning the federal election on 27th September, circa 1/6th of the electorate now say they would vote differently if given the choice again – and would chose another political party.
It has also become clear since the election that Chancellor Angela Merkel had won her second-term in large part because of the failure of the Social Democratic SPD to turn-out their traditional core voters.
The SPD seems to have lost around 10 million votes compared to the election in 1998, when Gerhard Schroeder won and formed a coalition government with the Green party. Of this amount itseems that in the 27th September election this year, around two million SPD voters simply stayed at home.
This was the worst turnout for decades in what by all accounts was considered as the most boring in years – hence a lot of the apparent apathy. Of Germany’s 62.2 million eligible voters, turnout was at a record low of 71 percent against 78 percent four years ago. The all time high in recent elections was in 1972 with 91 percent.
According to a poll in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, almost 16 percent of respondents were, after the fact, unhappy with their vote. There was disparity between former East German and West German voters polled. Most of the discontent [28%] was attributed to East German respondents, while a lesser amount [13%] was recorded in the West.
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Well in hind-sight, or with hind-sight indeed people would have voted differently. An interesting poll – have never heard of such a pole AFTER an election!