German elections: Dr Karamba Diaby, representing the eastern German constituency of Halle (Saxony-Anhalt), has won his third election into the German Parliament (Bundestag) – the African in Germany has now been re-elected.
The Senegalese-born member of the SPD, who won a direct mandate on Sunday, took to social media to thank his supporters for the resounding victory.
“What an evening!
“I am still overwhelmed by the great trust that the people of #hallesaale, #landsberg, #petersberg and #kabelsketal have placed in me. With 28.8 percent, I was able to enter the Bundestag directly.
“I will carry this mandate with honour and responsibility and continue to represent my constituency in the German Bundestag with all my strength over the next four years”
In a post on his Facebook page on Monday, Dr Diaby said: “I would like to thank my family, my friends, my team and all my comrades who have fought so hard for me and for social democracy in the last weeks and months.”
Dr Diaby, who was the only member of the German parliament of African origin in the previous legislative term, was first elected in 2013.
The election of the Social Democrat and that of Charles Huber (CDU) as the Bundestag’s first members of African descent in 2013 marked a watershed in the history of Germany.
Elections in Germany, Awet Tesfaiesus elected first black woman to the Bundestag
Born in Senegal in 1961, Dr Diaby won a stipend to study in East Germany in 1985, where he studied chemistry and received a PhD in geo-ecology in Halle-Wittenberg. He was an SPD councillor in Halle from 2009 to 2015, and was first elected to the Bundestag in 2013.
By Bakary Ceesay