Social media rife with conspiracy theories after 16 candidates die ahead of German local elections

The election supervisor in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has told the media that the authority is aware of 16 candidates dying in the run-up to this month's local elections.

Elections will take place in the state on 14 September and voters will choose district, municipal and city councils, as well as mayors in most cities and district administrators.

But election officials say they are not concerned by the number of deaths and don't consider it significantly high.

But speculation has been rife on social media due to the rising number of deaths among candidates representing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

At the beginning of September, four candidates for the AfD were reported dead, and just days later that tally had risen to seven.

AfD co-chair Alice Weidel shared the news in a post on the social media platform X saying only, "Four AfD candidates dead."

The initial four deaths were among candidates representing the towns of Bad Lippspringe, Blomberg, Rheinberg and Schwerte.

No evidence of foul play, police say

State police looking into the initial four deaths, which were announced on 1 September, told the German Press Agency (dpa) that there was no evidence of any third party involvement.

Only in one case was an official investigation launched which didn’t uncover any evidence of foul play.

The other three fatalities were determined to have died in circumstances that were not deemed suspicious.

Of the candidates whose deaths were announced on 2 September, one died of kidney failure while the other committed suicide.

On 3 September, the AfD branch in Remscheid told Politico that their candidate for Kremenholl was an 80-year-old who died of natural causes after a long illness.

Kay Gottschalk, the AfD state vice-president, said on Politico’s "Berlin Playbook" podcast that there was no reason to view the deaths as anything other than a coincidence.

Nevertheless, it is planned to examine the cases "without immediately getting into conspiracy theory territory," he said.

North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany’s third-largest state by area and has a population of more than 18 million.

More than 20,000 people are running for seats in the state.