Overview

• Voters across North Rhine-Westphalia choose new mayors and district administrators in a second round after many first-round races produced no outright winner.
• In Cologne, Green candidate Berivan Aymaz seeks the open mayoralty after leading the first round ahead of SPD’s Torsten Burmester.
• AfD contenders are in decisive runoffs in Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and Hagen, where CDU’s Dennis Rehbein faces AfD’s Michael Eiche following a 25.1% to 21.2% first-round split.
• The first round reshaped the landscape, with the CDU leading statewide at about 33.3%, the SPD at 22.1%, the AfD at 14.5% and the Greens at 13.5%.
• Both CDU and SPD have urged reciprocal support in head-to-heads with AfD candidates to prevent AfD wins in top municipal posts.