In Hesse, the polling stations for the general election are open on Sunday morning.

4.3 million people in the country are eligible to vote.

You can cast your vote until 6 p.m.

However, many eligible voters have already cast their votes by voting by letter.

Many people in Hesse are also called upon to elect mayors, mayors and district administrators.

By 2 p.m., 41.3 percent of those eligible to vote had used their opportunity to vote in the federal elections, as a spokeswoman for the state returning officer announced at the request of the FAZ.

Four years ago, almost 46 percent had participated at that time.

But: This year there should be considerably more postal voters across the country, as data from Frankfurt alone suggest.

Contested constituencies

In Hesse, a total of 23 state lists of parties have been admitted to the Bundestag election.

Most recently, 50 MPs from Hesse sat in the parliament in Berlin: 17 MPs from the CDU, 12 from the SPD, 6 from the AfD, 6 from the FDP, 5 from the Greens and 4 from the Left Party.

The Bundestag had a total of 709 members.

Among the candidates is Federal Chancellery Minister Helge Braun (CDU) in the spotlight, who is competing in Giessen.

Also exciting is the struggle for the constituency with Bornheim and Nordend in Frankfurt, which the Green Omid Nouripour wants to win after his nose was ahead in Frankfurt in the local elections in the city.

In the Rheingau-Taunus / Limburg constituency defender Klaus-Peter Willsch (CDU), among others, returns to Anna Lührmann (The Greens).

The regional returning officer provides information about the approved list online.

SPD slightly ahead of the Union

A close race for the top spot is emerging. In the last survey by Allensbach for the FAZ, the SPD was just ahead of the Union in the federal government, the Greens were able to improve somewhat after a downward slide, the AfD slipped slightly. In the federal election in 2017, the CDU became the strongest force in Hesse. The Christian Democrats got 30.9 percent of the second vote before the SPD, which got 23.5 percent. It was followed by the AfD as the third strongest party with 11.9 just ahead of the FDP with 11.5 percent of the vote. The Greens got 9.7 percent and the left 8.1 percent in the last federal election in Hesse.

The turnout in the federal election four years ago in Hesse was 77 percent. The proportion of postal voters was 26.8 percent. However, the percentage of postal voters will be significantly higher this time as a result of the corona pandemic: in Hesse's largest city of Frankfurt alone, around 40.5 percent of the 428,500 eligible voters submitted a corresponding application.

New town hall chiefs are elected in Gießen and Buseck, Bad Orb, Maintal and Karben, Neu-Isenburg and Seligenstadt, for example.

In Giessen, the SPD member of the state parliament and former Protestant dean Frank-Tilo Becher takes on Alexander Wright (The Greens) and Frederik Bouffier (CDU), son of Prime Minister Volker Bouffier, among others.

The Giessen District Administrator Anita Schneider (SPD) is running against the previous Mayor of Giessen (Peter Neidel) and Kersten Gromes (The Greens).

In the Offenbach district, District Administrator Oliver Quilling (CDU), Carsten Müller (SPD) and Robert Müller (The Greens) are the same three candidates as six years ago