Or perhaps it indicates a greater degree of internal democracy in Die Linke than those who dismiss it as a DDR nostalgia club would have expected.
That's beyond doubt; every party, including the Left Party, chooses its list candidates and their rank order at a state-wide convention by secret ballot of the delegates. They may, of course, follow the recommendations of the executive, but it's still a secret ballot.
What's odd is that the assorted Marxists, ex-Marxists, ex-anarchists, trot hangers-ons, peace activists, and others who wandered in from the cold, must have outnumbered Lafontaine's people at the convention. Again. The same thing happened with the Hesse state list for the state election, which is one of the reasons why the idea of a red-red-green accord didn't fly in Hesse; the Left Party caucus didn't look like a group SPD leader Ypsilanti could count on or rely on. But Northrhine-Westfalia is not Hesse: it includes the Ruhr-Rhine conurbation, the stronghold of the German labour movement, many of whom have followed Lafontaine into the Left Party. But they apparently couldn't get their rank and file to turn out.
Continuing down the NR-W list:
7. Sevim Dağdelen, 34, an incumbent MP, a young woman of Turkish origin. Interesting that she ran seventh at the convention, behind Sahra Wagenknecht and Andrej Hunko. (In 2005 the Left Party elected seven MPs from NR-W, one of whom was Lafontaine himself, but this year he's running in his home state, Saarland.) She joined the Left Party at its founding; before that she was actively involved in the trade union, student council and the immmigrant organizations.
8. Niema Movassat, 25. Joined the PDS Youth in 2000. Graduated from law school in April 2009. Born in Germany, Iranian-origin family. He seems to be replacing incumbent MP Hüseyin-Kenan Aydin, who had been elected in 2005 as a trade unionist and WASG founder. One less of Lafontaine's people.
9. Ingrid Remmers, 44. Worked in adult education, fought Hartz IV, became politically active in 2004 with founding of WASG and went straight onto its state executive.
10. Matthias W. Birkwald, 48. From 1988 to 1990 member of Communist Party, joined PDS in 1993.
11. Kathrin Vogler, 46. From 1990-1999 full-time with the federal office of the German Peace Society, and resumed full-time peace work in 2002 after parental leave. Joined SPD 1983-2001, left over Afghanistan. Joined WASG in 2005.
12. Marc Mulia, 40. Teacher, peace activist. From 1993 to 1999 Green. Left over Afghanistan, elected to local school board as PDS.
By the way, on the subject of Turkish/Muslim candidates: in 2005 the Left Party's 4th spot in Berlin was held by Dr. Hakki Keskin, born in Turkey. He was elected, since the Left Party won four seats in Berlin. Aged 66, he is not running again, but instead we find Figen Izgin, 44, who came from Turkey with her family when she was 14. But we find her in seventh spot. Berlin has 22 MPs. Will the Left Party elect 7 of 22? Unlikely?