In the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, more women made it into the city councils and district assemblies than in 2014. After the votes were counted, the quota rose from 30.1 to just under 34.4 percent. According to the state returning officer, 1239 of 3598 elected representatives are women.
The CDU, SPD and Greens were all able to increase their proportion of women in the administrative districts. In the CDU it grew from 22.4 percent in 2014 to 26.4 percent. The SPD achieved a quota of women of 39.4 percent among the elected mandate holders, six years ago it was 35.6 percent.
Parity prevails with the Greens. As in 2014, women made up around half of the elected representatives there.
With 53.3 percent, the Left is the only party to have more women than men. The AfD has particularly few female mandate holders at local level: 18 of the 185 elected representatives there are women, a share of 9.7 percent (2014: 6.7 percent).
In the first directly elected association assembly of the regional association Ruhr, women secured 36 out of 91 seats.
Decisive runoff elections
Even among the mayors and district administrators, things could shift in favor of the female candidates. In several cities and districts there will be runoff elections on September 27th. Six women then have the chance to become mayor.
So far, Henriette Reker from Cologne is the only female mayor among 22 male officials in North Rhine-Westphalia. She received 45.1 percent of the vote, and at the end of the month she has to compete against SPD man Andreas Kossiski, who received 26.8 percent of the vote.
Reker is confident
“I want to win elections, not polls,” said Henriette Reker on election evening. She is confident that she can win the runoff election. The 63-year-old was in the last OB election five years ago after a knife attack in a coma and received 52.7 percent of the vote.
Karin Welge (SPD) also has a good chance of becoming mayor in Gelsenkirchen. The previous city director secured 40.4 percent of the votes against CDU candidate Malte Stuckmann with 25.1 percent.
Further OB duels are pending in Bonn, Krefeld, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Aachen. It should be particularly tight in Mülheim. There CDU candidate Marc Buchholz challenges SPD woman Monika Griefahn. After Sunday it is 25.4 to 25.3 percent.
In Aachen, the Green Sibylle Keupen has a good chance of winning the Lord Mayor’s race with 38.9 percent of the vote. She competes against CDU man Harald Baal, who achieved 24.8 percent.
Soon more district administrators?
After the election on Sunday, there could also be more district administrators in NRW.
Eva Irrgang, the confirmed district chief of Soest, is so far the only woman among 30 men. In the districts of Kleve and Minden-Lübbecke, two more CDU women are in the running after Sunday, who have a good chance of increasing the proportion of district administrators in North Rhine-Westphalia from one woman to three.
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