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Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The North Rhine-Westphalian SPD will elect its new chairman on March 6th because of the Corona crisis at an online party conference.
While the outgoing country manager Sebastian Hartmann and his likely successor Thomas Kutschaty are connected live from a conference center in Neuss, the more than 450 delegates are sitting at their computers at home.
The new party leader will initially be elected electronically, said an SPD spokesman for the German press agency.
Since the digital vote still has to be made legally secure, a postal vote follows.
The delegates would have several days to send off their ballot papers.
The only candidate for the chairmanship of the SPD state association with the largest number of members is state parliamentary group leader Kutschaty (52).
The former NRW Minister of Justice should also be the top candidate for the NRW state election in 2022 at the suggestion of the state executive.
The incumbent country chief Hartmann had announced that he was not going to run again after a month-long power struggle.
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Vice Chancellor and SPD candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be the guest speaker at the one-day state party conference, it said.
The SPD federal chairmen Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans also have their say in the program debate.
The entire state board of the NRW-SPD is to be re-elected at the party congress.
Because of the corona pandemic, the party conference had been postponed several times.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210220-99-518891 / 3
NRW SPD