2008 Lower Austrian state election

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
Turnout	1,033,695 (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 2008 Lower Austrian state election was held on 9 March 2008 to elect the members of the Landtag of Lower Austria.

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.

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.

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.

• Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ)
• The Christians (DCP) – on the ballot only in 20 constituencies
• Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) – on the ballot only in 17 constituencies
• List for our Lower Austria (LNÖ) – on the ballot only in 6 constituencies
• Animal Rights Party (TRP) – on the ballot only in Mödling

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	%
Amstetten	58.6	3	22.7	1	10.1		6.0		2.6	4	79.1
Baden	47.2	2	29.1	1	12.8		7.9		3.0	3	70.2
Bruck an der Leitha	51.2		30.7		10.7		5.7		1.7	0	72.6
Gänserndorf	47.9	1	30.9	1	12.1		5.9		3.2	2	71.3
Gmünd	54.1		31.1		8.1		4.3		2.4	0	77.9
Hollabrunn	60.7	1	23.5		8.5		5.3		2.1	1	77.8
Horn	68.6	1	18.1		6.4		4.8		2.0	1	79.2
Korneuburg	56.0	1	22.0		10.8		8.7		2.5	1	73.0
Krems an der Donau	60.5	2	21.2		8.9		6.2		3.2	2	76.9
Lilienfeld	51.2		32.2		9.6		4.7		2.3	0	79.5
Melk	55.1	1	26.0		11.0		5.3		2.7	1	80.2
Mistelbach	60.5	2	22.4		9.5		5.5		2.2	2	78.0
Mödling	52.0	2	21.5		9.4		12.9		4.3	2	68.3
Neunkirchen	49.4	1	30.8	1	11.7		5.7		2.4	2	75.2
Sankt Pölten	49.4	2	28.4	1	11.6		7.4		3.2	3	75.6
Scheibbs	60.9	1	21.9		8.9		5.9		2.4	1	80.5
Tulln	58.4	1	22.4		9.7		7.1		2.3	1	75.7
Waidhofen an der Thaya	63.1		20.7		10.2		4.6		1.4	0	78.0
Wiener Neustadt	50.5	2	29.0	1	12.0		5.7		2.7	3	71.9
Vienna Surrounds	46.9	2	27.5	1	11.4		11.6		2.7	3	65.3
Zwettl	70.0	1	15.6		7.8		4.5		2.2	1	81.9
Remaining seats		5		8		6		4		23
Total	54.4	31	25.5	15	10.5	6	6.9	4	2.7	56	74.5
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:

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