The result was so close that for safety's sake it was counted three times: When SPD member vote on the party presidency in Baden-Württemberg, incumbent Leni Breymaier against challenger Lars Castellucci prevailed - with just 39 votes ahead at 18,990 votes cast.
After the final result, Breymaier received 9176 votes - that's 48.46 percent. Castellucci got 9137 votes - that's 48.25 percent. There were 623 abstentions, equivalent to 3.29 percent of the valid votes. The turnout was almost 53 percent. The party has about 36,000 members in Baden-Württemberg.
However, Breymaier announced in Stuttgart that he did not want to compete at the state party convention on Saturday. As a reason for their withdrawal called Breymaier the tight end of the membership decision.
The vote had become necessary because the Breymaier, who had been elected two years ago, had been challenged by Castellucci for criticizing her administration.
A first count of votes on late Monday evening had resulted in a Castellucci advantage of about 20 votes. On Tuesday, the party then counted out for safety's sake again. The result of the member survey is not binding - theoretically, other candidates for the chairmanship can also be reported during the congress.
The party was torn apart, Breymaier said: "I think that requires consequences." She explained that both she and Castellucci were likely to receive less than 50 percent of the votes in the grassroots poll. Reason are many abstentions.
Breymaier offered Castellucci, together with her a suitable successor to search, which will be elected on Saturday at the state party convention in Sindelfingen. However, Castellucci wants to compete himself. As a suitable successor in the party of the group chairman Andreas Stoch and the Karlsruhe Lord Mayor Frank Mentrup be called.