Anyone who still wants to lodge an objection to the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia must hurry: The deadline is one month after the announcement of the election results and ends in many municipalities on 28 October 2025. Although the local elections in NRW took place on 14 September 2025, the candidates in many municipalities did not achieve the required absolute majority in the first round of voting. There were therefore run-off elections in many places on 28/09/2025. „The announcement of the results of the run-off election is relevant for the deadline for election objections. Objections to the election must be submitted in writing or verbally for the record,“ explains Rechtsanwalt Dr Dominik Lück.

When this deadline expires, citizens will no longer have the opportunity to have the objective legality of the election reviewed in a formal procedure. Whether their objection then has a chance of success will be determined in a two-stage procedure. Test procedure turn out: Firstly, for an election to be successfully contested, there must be an electoral error in the first place (Section 39 KWahlG NRW), which must also have been relevant to the mandate (Section 40 (1) (b) KWahlG NRW).