The council (in Vorarlberg and Salzburg municipal council is called) in Austria, the elected people's representatives within a community . He is directly elected by the citizens . The number of municipal councils, as the individual persons are called, depends on the number of registered residents with main residence in the municipality . All Austrian citizens as well as local EU citizens are entitled to vote . There are also repeated discussions as to whether non-EU citizens should also be given the right to vote if they stay in the municipality for a certain period of time. The respective municipal election regulations, which are state laws, are authoritative.
A number of executive councils (gfGR) are elected by the council from among the councils. They head a community committee that deals with various topics, such as spatial planning , financial management , security and culture . The committees prepare applications for the municipal council, which are then approved or rejected by the municipal council itself.
As part of the financial sovereignty of the municipality, the budget is decided by the municipal council. The municipal council also has an important say in construction matters. He is the building authority of the second instance after the mayor, which means that objections to building negotiations are dealt with by the local council.
Depending on the federal state, the mayor is elected by the local council or directly by the citizens. In most federal states he is directly elected (by the people); in Lower Austria, Styria and Vienna, however, by the members of the municipal council.
The political events of a municipality are determined in municipal council meetings, most of which are public, which means that every citizen can listen, but has no say or right to vote. Often there is a non-public part in which personal matters of various kinds are dealt with and about which the mandataries have a duty of confidentiality .
Electoral systems
- Lists: a political party or a group of people draws up a list of candidates in a specific order, which is announced before the election. Depending on the share of the vote, the individual candidates are sent to the municipal council.
- Preferential voting: Regardless of the order, individual candidates can also be ranked or deleted; depending on the number of votes, they can be ranked forwards or backwards within the rankings and can therefore move further down the list in the list regardless of the total number of votes, despite a previous ranking can fall out of sequence.
In both cases, the mandates are allocated in a one-step election process based on the d'Hondt electoral system .
Usually, preferential voting is carried out in all federal states today. A peculiarity in Vorarlberg is the majority election or voting procedure for elections to the municipal council in the absence of nominations , as the official name is. There are no nominations and voters write their own nominations on the ballot paper. The decisive factor is again the number of votes who is sent to the municipal council. In the 2015 municipal council elections , this system was used in 16 municipalities.
Number of local councils
The number of municipal councils is regulated by the federal states in the municipal ordinances.
Burgenland
The number of members of the municipal council is regulated in the Burgenland municipal code. For the two cities with their own statute , the number is specified in the respective city law.
| Residents
|
Municipal council
members
|
| up to 250 |
9
|
| 251-500 |
11
|
| 501-750 |
13
|
| 751-1,000 |
15th
|
| 1,001-1,500 |
19th
|
| 1,501-2,000 |
21st
|
| 2,001-3,000 |
23
|
| over 3,000 |
25th
|
|
|
Carinthia
The number of members of the municipal council is regulated in the Carinthian General Municipality Code. For the two cities with their own statute , the number is specified in their respective municipal law.
| Residents
|
Municipal council
members
|
| up to 1000 |
11
|
| 1,001-2,000 |
15th
|
| 2,001-3,000 |
19th
|
| 3,001-6,000 |
23
|
| 6,001-10,000 |
27
|
| 10,001-20,000 |
31
|
| over 20,000 |
35
|
|
|
Lower Austria
The number of members of the municipal council is regulated in the Lower Austrian municipal code of 1973. For the four cities with their own statute , the number is specified in the respective city law.
| Residents
|
Municipal council
members
|
| up to 500 |
13
|
| 501-1,000 |
15th
|
| 1,001-2,000 |
19th
|
| 2,001-3,000 |
21st
|
| 3,001-4,000 |
23
|
| 4,001-5,000 |
25th
|
| 5,001-7,000 |
29
|
| 7,001-10,000 |
33
|
| 10,001-20,000 |
37
|
| 20,001-30,000 |
41
|
| over 30,000 |
45
|
|
|
Upper Austria
The number of members of the municipal council is regulated in the Upper Austrian municipal code of 1990. For the three cities with their own statute , the number is regulated in the respective statute.
| Residents
|
Municipal council
members
|
| up to 400 |
9
|
| 401-1,100 |
13
|
| 1,101-1,900 |
19th
|
| 1,901-4,500 |
25th
|
| 4,501-7,300 |
31
|
| over 7,300 |
37
|
|
|
Salzburg
The number of members of the municipal council is regulated in the Salzburg municipal code of 1994. For the statutory city of Salzburg, the number is regulated in its municipal law.
| Residents
|
Community council
members
|
| up to 800 |
9
|
| 801-1,500 |
13
|
| 1,501-2,500 |
17th
|
| 2,501-3,500 |
19th
|
| 3,501-5,000 |
21st
|
| over 5,000 |
25th
|
|
| city
|
Community council
members
|
| Salzburg |
40
|
|
Styria
The number of members of the municipal councils is regulated in the Styrian municipal code. For the statutory city of Graz, the number is regulated in its statute.
| Residents
|
Municipal council
members
|
| up to 1,000 |
9
|
| 1,001-3,000 |
15th
|
| 3,001-5,000 |
21st
|
| 5,001-10,000 |
25th
|
| over 10,000 |
31
|
|
| city
|
Municipal council
members
|
| Graz |
48
|
|
Tyrol
The number of members of the municipal councils is regulated in the Tyrolean municipal code. For the statutory city of Innsbruck, the number is regulated in its municipal law.
| Residents
|
Municipal council
members
|
| up to 200 |
9
|
| 201-1,000 |
11
|
| 1,001-2,000 |
13
|
| 2,001-4,000 |
15th
|
| 4,001-6,000 |
17th
|
| 6,001-10,000 |
19th
|
| over 10,000 |
21st
|
|
|
Vorarlberg
The number of members of the municipal councils is regulated exclusively in the law on the organization of the municipal administration, since Vorarlberg does not have any cities with their own statutes.
| Residents
|
Community council
members
|
| up to 500 |
9
|
| 501-1,000 |
12
|
| 1,001-1,500 |
15th
|
| 1,501-2,000 |
18th
|
| 2,001-2,500 |
21st
|
| 2,501-5,000 |
24
|
| 5,001-8,000 |
27
|
| 8,001-11,000 |
30th
|
| 11,001-15,000 |
33
|
| over 15,000 |
36
|
Vienna
In Vienna the municipal council has 100 members.
The district representatives have 40 to 60 members. Districts with up to 50,000 inhabitants have 40 members, 2 district representatives are added for every 4,000 additional residents, whereby the maximum number of 60 may not be exceeded.
See also
Individual evidence
-
↑ Section 15, Paragraph 1 of the Burgenland Municipal Code
-
↑ Section 27 (1) of the Eisenstadt city law
-
↑ Section 27, Paragraph 1 of the Rust City Law
-
↑ § 18 Paragraph 1 of the Carinthian General Municipality Code
-
↑ Section 19 (1) of the Klagenfurt City Law 1998
-
↑ Section 19 (1) of the Villach town law 1998
-
↑ Section 19 (1) of the 1973 municipal code
-
↑ Section 4, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the Krems City Law 1977 ( memo from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
-
↑ § 4 Paragraph 1 Z 1 of the St. Pölten City Law 1977 ( Memento from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
-
↑ § 4 Paragraph 1 Z 1 of the Waidhofner Stadtrechts 1977 ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
-
↑ Section 4, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the Wr. Neustädter Stadtrechts 1977 ( Memento from August 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
-
↑ Section 18 (1) of the 1990 municipal code
-
↑ § 8 Paragraph 1 of the Statute for the State Capital Linz 1992
-
↑ § 8 Paragraph 1 of the Statute for the City of Wels 1992
-
↑ § 8 Paragraph 1 of the Statute for the City of Steyr 1992
-
↑ Section 19, Paragraph 2 of the Salzburg Municipal Code 1994
-
↑ Section 5, Paragraph 1 of the Salzburg City Law 1966
-
↑ Section 15, Paragraph 1 of the Styrian Municipal Code 1967
-
↑ § 15 Paragraph 1 of the Statute of the State Capital Graz 1967 ( Memento from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
-
↑ § 22 Paragraph 1 of the Tyrolean Municipal Code 2001
-
↑ Section 10 (1) of the city law of the state capital Innsbruck 1975
-
↑ Section 34, Paragraph 1 of the Act on the Organization of Municipal Administration (Municipal Act)
-
↑ Section 10 (2) of the Vienna City Constitution
-
↑ Section 61 (1) of the Vienna City Constitution
