There are tens of thousands of candidates for local elections in Germany's largest state - 14 of them died before voting. Six of them are from the right-wing Alternative for Germany, so now conspiracy theories are rampant
Six candidates Alternatives for Germany they died before the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German province.
Five candidates for municipal, city and district mandates were aged between 59 and 72 years. It was confirmed that one had kidney failure, the other heart failure. None of them are suspected of murder.
The sixth man, who was 46 years old, committed suicide.
"In my opinion, this is statistically striking and currently difficult to explain," said party vice president Stefan Brandner.
Total 14 dead
Social networks and right-wing blogs and media are already buzzing with conspiracy theories, although the AfD itself says there is not the slightest indication that it is anything more than a coincidence.
Kai Gottschalk, the party's second man in the province, told Politico that there is no reason to assume that anything more than coincidence is at play. He says he will check the matter "without immediately jumping into conspiracy theories."
As the topic heated up before the elections on September 14, the media counted that a total of 14 candidates died, that is, eight who belong to other parties or are running independently.
New ballots
Given that elections are held at several local levels, and that the province has around 18 million inhabitants, there is a total of six-digit number of candidates.
For example, Chancellor Friedrich Mertz's Christian Democratic Union is running for a total of 25.000 people.
"Fortunately, we are not aware of any of them having died, although it is statistically surprising given the large number of people," said a spokesman for the party.
Months pass between the selection of candidates and the elections themselves, and it is not unusual for some of them to die in the meantime.
Wherever possible, new ballots are then printed.
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