Around 52 million insured persons and pensioners are entitled to vote.
(Photo: IMAGO/Steinach)
Berlin The social elections, which take place every six years, have two premieres this year. On the one hand, voters can cast their votes online for the first time. On the other hand, for the first time, a gender quota applies to the bodies to be elected.
The social election will thus become the “modernization driver of voting in Germany,” said the responsible federal election officer and former CDU member of the Bundestag Peter Weiß on Thursday in Berlin. If the premiere is successful, he expects a debate as to whether online elections could not also be tested in other polls.
In the social elections, around 52 million insured and pensioners decide on the composition of the representatives’ assembly of the pension insurance and the administrative boards of the health insurance companies. Around 30 million are entitled to vote for the social parliament of the German Pension Insurance Association (DRV), around 22 million are allowed to vote for the five substitute funds TK, Barmer, DAK, KKH and HKK.
The honorary members of the self-government decide on the budgets, the boards and the course of the insurance companies as well as the committees that deal with objections from insured persons. Self-administration also has an influence on bonus programs or optional tariffs.
That’s why it’s so important that female members are also represented on the committees, said Doris Barnett, deputy federal election commissioner for social security elections. Because: “Women get sick differently, have different needs”, for example when it comes to better care for pregnant women.
So far, less than a quarter of the self-government members are women
In the last social election, only 22.6 percent of the posts went to women. For this year’s election, a gender quota of 40 percent applies to the electoral lists of the health insurance companies. Pension insurance is a compulsory provision. Unlike the health insurance companies, the quota is not yet mandatory there.
The social election is the third largest democratic vote in Germany after the Bundestag and European elections. In contrast to other elections, young people over the age of 16 and insured persons with a foreign passport are also entitled to vote. So far, social elections have been purely postal votes.
“Drivers of the Modernization of Voting in Germany.”
(Photo: Marc-Steffen Unger for Handelsblatt)
The election commissioner Weiss hopes that the possibility of online voting, which is initially only available at the substitute registers, will lead to a higher turnout. Six years ago it was just over 30 percent.
After several trial runs, one is confident that the online vote will work, said Weiß. Those entitled to vote are authenticated using the digital identity card or health insurance card. Double counting of online and parallel postal votes is excluded. Initially, the Federal Ministry of Labor had registered concerns about the online election.
DRV President Gundula Roßbach emphasized the importance of the social elections, for which the documents are being sent out these days. The bodies available for election are an “important social link between the citizens and the administration”. They ensure that the funds are used appropriately and give the insured a voice in politics.
In the case of pension insurance, for example, the self-government has successfully campaigned for long and post-Covid rehabilitation and provided money for relevant research.
Estonia is a role model for online voting. In the most recent parliamentary elections in the Baltic country, a good half of those entitled to vote used the option of online voting, said CDU politician Weiss. When it comes to social elections, the service provider that developed the software for online elections in Estonia works together.
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