Love Parade mayor ousted

Residents in the German city of Duisburg voted controversial mayor Adolf Sauerland out of office on Sunday after more than a third of the city's registered voters opted for his removal.

Around 129,000 citizens voted in favor of his dumping, far exceeding the minimum number set. The poll had required at least a quarter the city's 365,000 registered voters opt in favor of his sacking, provided that this was a majority of the total votes cast.

The vote had been forced after almost 80,000 people signed a petition in favor of it. The figure was well above a legal minimum of 55,000 voting citizens needed to force a referendum. Citizens blamed Sauerland for not taking enough responsibility for the 2010 Love Parade disaster in which 21 people lost their lives.

Democratic conclusion

Sauerland - whose term of office would have expired in 2015 - had rejected repeated calls to resign, but had welcomed the vote.

"It is good that a democratic conclusion will be reached that everyone will have to accept," he said ahead of the poll.

However, the mayor's Christian Democrat party colleagues described the events as a "farce," complaining that the controversy has been hijacked by Sauerland's political opponents.

While he is not personally accused of wrongdoing, critics said his city council was too focused on denying legal liability for the disaster in July 2010. They had called for Sauerland to accept political responsibility for allowing the festival to go ahead.

A total of 21 people died in the disaster, dying of suffocation in an overcrowded tunnel leading to the techno music festival.

The city will hold elections for a new mayor within six months. In the meantime, senior city officials will take on his responsibilities.

ccp/dfm (AFP, dpa, AP)