2008 Lower Austrian state election

The 2008 Lower Austrian state election was held on 9 March 2008 to elect the members of the Landtag of Lower Austria.

2008 Lower Austrian state election
9 March 2008
All 56 seats in the Landtag of Lower Austria
29 seats needed for a majority
All 9 seats in the state government
Turnout1,033,695 (74.5%)
2.7%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Erwin Pröll Heidemaria Onodi
Party ÖVP SPÖ
Last election 31 seats, 53.3% 19 seats, 33.6%
Seats won 31 15
Seat change 0 4
Popular vote 549,510 257,770
Percentage 54.4% 25.5%
Swing 1.1% 8.0%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Barbara Rosenkranz Madeleine Petrovic
Party FPÖ Greens
Last election 2 seats, 4.5% 4 seats, 7.2%
Seats won 6 4
Seat change 4 0
Popular vote 105,748 69,852
Percentage 10.5% 6.9%
Swing 6.0% 0.3%
Governor before election

Erwin Pröll
ÖVP

 Elected Governor

Erwin Pröll
ÖVP

The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) retained its majority. The major opposition party, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), suffered substantial losses. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) partially recovered from its 2003 losses, more than doubling its voteshare and tripling its number of seats.[1]

Background

The Lower Austrian constitution mandates that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, German: Landesräten) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. As such, the government is a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualify for at least one state councillor. After the 2003 election, the ÖVP had six councillors and the SPÖ three.

Electoral system

The 56 seats of the Landtag of Lower Austria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between twenty-one multi-member constituencies. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 4 percent state-wide electoral threshold. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the Hare quota, with any remaining seats allocated using the D'Hondt method at the state level, to ensure overall proportionality between a party's vote share and its share of seats.[2]

Contesting parties

The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag.

Name Ideology Leader 2003 result
Votes (%) Seats Councillors
ÖVP Austrian People's Party
Österreichische Volkspartei		 Christian democracy Erwin Pröll 53.3%
31 / 56
6 / 9
SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria
Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs		 Social democracy Heidemaria Onodi 33.6%
19 / 56
3 / 9
GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative
Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative		 Green politics Madeleine Petrovic 7.2%
4 / 56
FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria
Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs		 Right-wing populism
Euroscepticism		 Barbara Rosenkranz 4.5%
2 / 56

In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, five parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.[3]

Results
Party Votes % +/− Seats +/− Coun. +/−
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 549,510 54.39 +1.10 31 ±0 6 ±0
Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 257,770 25.51 –8.04 15 –4 2 –1
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 105,748 10.47 +5.98 6 +4 1 +1
The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 69,852 6.91 –0.31 4 ±0 0 ±0
Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) 8,661 0.86 +0.09 0 ±0 0 ±0
The Christians (DCP) 8,537 0.84 New 0 New 0 New
Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) 7,250 0.72 New 0 New 0 New
List for our Lower Austria (LNÖ) 2,174 0.22 New 0 New 0 New
Animal Rights Party (TRP) 854 0.08 New 0 New 0 New
Invalid/blank votes 23,339 – – – – – –
Total 1,033,695 100 – 56 0 9 0
Registered voters/turnout 1,387,368 74.51 +2.72 – – – –
Source: Lower Austrian Government
Popular vote
ÖVP
 
 54.39%
SPÖ
 
 25.51%
FPÖ
 
 10.47%
GRÜNE
 
 6.91%
Other
 
 2.72%
Landtag seats
ÖVP
 
 55.36%
SPÖ
 
 25.00%
FPÖ
 
 10.71%
GRÜNE
 
 7.14%

Results by constituency
Constituency ÖVP SPÖ FPÖ Grüne Others Total
seats		 Turnout
%S %S %S %S %
Amstetten58.6322.7110.16.02.6479.1
Baden47.2229.1112.87.93.0370.2
Bruck an der Leitha51.230.710.75.71.7072.6
Gänserndorf47.9130.9112.15.93.2271.3
Gmünd54.131.18.14.32.4077.9
Hollabrunn60.7123.58.55.32.1177.8
Horn68.6118.16.44.82.0179.2
Korneuburg56.0122.010.88.72.5173.0
Krems an der Donau60.5221.28.96.23.2276.9
Lilienfeld51.232.29.64.72.3079.5
Melk55.1126.011.05.32.7180.2
Mistelbach60.5222.49.55.52.2278.0
Mödling52.0221.59.412.94.3268.3
Neunkirchen49.4130.8111.75.72.4275.2
Sankt Pölten49.4228.4111.67.43.2375.6
Scheibbs60.9121.98.95.92.4180.5
Tulln58.4122.49.77.12.3175.7
Waidhofen an der Thaya63.120.710.24.61.4078.0
Wiener Neustadt50.5229.0112.05.72.7371.9
Vienna Surrounds46.9227.5111.411.62.7365.3
Zwettl70.0115.67.84.52.2181.9
Remaining seats586423
Total54.43125.51510.566.942.75674.5
Source: Lower Austrian Government

Preference votes

Alongside votes for a party, voters were able to cast a preferential votes for a candidate on the party list. The ten candidates with the most preferential votes were as follows:[4]

Party Pos. Candidate Votes %
ÖVP 1 Erwin Pröll 303,022 91.2
SPÖ 1 Heidemaria Onodi 45,445 58.5
FPÖ 1 Barbara Rosenkranz 45,371 86.8
GRÜNE 1 Madeleine Petrovic 18,973 66.5
SPÖ 2 Emil Schabl 4,131 5.3
ÖVP 3 Wolfgang Sobotka 3,961 1.2
ÖVP 4 Josef Plank 3,748 1.1
ÖVP 2 Ernest Gabmann 2,695 0.8
ÖVP 30 Bettina Rausch 2,441 0.7
SPÖ 13 Josef Jahrmann 2,211 2.8

References
  1. "State of Lower Austria – Landtag election 2008". Lower Austrian Government.
  2. "ROS - NÖ Landtag electoral law 1992 - State law for Lower Austria, version of 04.08.2020". Lower Austrian Government.
  3. "Parties". Lower Austrian Government.
  4. "Candidates". Lower Austrian Government.
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