BERLIN Ethan Pocic Hat , Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming Sunday will see Germans cast their ballot for the next federal parliament at nearly 70,000 polling stations across the country. Amid strained security situation in Europe and reported loopholes in the election software, Germany faces challenges to keep sabotagers and hackers at bay.


Apart from alert due to terror attacks occurred lately in other European countries, controversies surrounding this year's election, concurrent events such as the Berlin Marathon and Munich's Oktoberfest, as well as feared cyber attack further strained security situation in the country in the lead up to the federal election.


CONTROVERSY SPARKED OFFENSES


Controversies surrounding certain political parties lead to election related offenses. Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has reported 2,250 offenses in connection with the federal election campaign as of Sept. 13 Will Dissly Hat , 54 cases of which were acts of violence such as bodily harm, according to a BKA situation picture.


Victims of attacks during the election campaign are more often representatives or helpers of the far-right Party AfD. ""Especially the candidates of the AfD and their events are increasingly affected by the reports of material damage and disturbances"", according to the BKA situation picture.


One of the most frequent offenses is the damage to election posters. In Saxony-Anhalt, according to police, significantly more posters were destroyed than during the last federal election in 2013. The provincial council office in Magdeburg counted 1,238 damaged or stolen posters, the AfD being particularly affected with 867 destroyed posters Rashaad Penny Hat , followed by the CDU with 121 and the SPD with 95.


In Dresden, a man attacked an election information stand of the AfD and injured