Nine new members of the Jena Migration and Integration Advisory Board elected

After local, European and state elections, the last election of the 2019 calendar year took place on 3 December with the election of the Migration and Integration Advisory Board of the City of Jena. 1,306 ballots were cast by Jena's steadily growing population with a migration background. These nine new members of the Migration and Integration Advisory Board were elected from a total of 21 candidates:

• Danait Tesfagaber/Eritrea- 125 votes (for the Africa region)
• Rea Silvia Mauersberger Pedrosa de Araújo/Brazil- 310 votes (for the Americas region)
• Qingfang Wu/China- 366 votes (for the Asia region)
• Ivan Nizovtsev/Russian Federation - 399 votes (for the Eastern Europe region)
• Ibrahim Othman/Syria- 548 votes (for the Southern Mediterranean/Middle East region)
• Sana Al-Mudhaffar/Iraq- 381 votes (majority of votes)
• Mustafa Allami/Iraq- 374 votes (majority)
• Gary Steven Albrethsen/USA- 238 votes (majority)
• Lea Kvarantan Huber/Croatia- 209 votes (majority)

Jena's Commissioner for Migration and Integration and Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Dörthe Thiele was delighted with the large number of votes cast:

Elected by over 1,300 eligible voters, the advisory board has a much stronger mandate than in its last legislative period, as only just over 200 valid ballots were cast in the last election.

In her view, the significant increase in voter turnout is due to the change in the voting procedure.

The first-time implementation of a purely postal vote has absolutely proved its worth, even if the effort involved was high.

Thiele explains with complete satisfaction.

The newly elected Migration and Integration Advisory Board of the City of Jena will hold its constituent meeting on Monday, 20.01.2020. Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche will then welcome the elected members and the advisory board will then appoint its executive committee.