State election in Carinthia 2004
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The regional elections in Carinthia 2004 took place on March 7, 2004 and were held one year after the municipal council and mayoral elections. The election determined the composition of the 29th Carinthian Landtag . In the state elections, in addition to the parliamentary groups represented in the Carinthian state parliament, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and The Green Carinthia , the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) and the SAU party (SAU) on. From the election, the FPÖ emerged as the party with the strongest vote, with around 42% (+ 0.4%) of the vote. The SPÖ achieved the highest increase with +5.6%, but remained in second place with around 38%. The ÖVP was the big loser of this election with -9.1% and only came to 11.6%, while the Greens with 6.7% were able to move into the Carinthian state parliament for the first time.
requirements
Starting position
The Freedom Party of Austria won the state elections in Carinthia in 1999 with 42.1%, followed by the Social Democratic Party of Austria , which won 32.9% of the vote. The Austrian People's Party reached 20.7%, the Green Carinthia did not run under this name in 1999. With the top candidate Jörg Haider, the FPÖ has provided the governor since the 1999 elections. Since the FPÖ had recorded very heavy losses since the party congress in Knittelfeld in 2002 and the associated break in the Schüssel I government in the 2002 National Council elections (−16.9%) and all state elections, the SPÖ hoped to regain first place in Carinthia and thus to be able to claim the governor. The top candidate of the ÖVP Elisabeth Scheucher announced before the election that Jörg Haider would not be elected governor.
Suffrage
In the 2004 state elections in Carinthia, all persons were eligible to vote who had reached the age of 18 on the day of the election, were not excluded from the right to vote, were Austrian citizens on January 3, 2004 and had their main residence in Carinthia. The same criteria were the basis for the right to stand as a candidate. 425,304 people were actively eligible to vote in the state elections.
Carinthia is divided into 4 constituencies for the election. The Constituency 1 included the districts of Klagenfurt City and Klagenfurt-Land, the constituency two districts Völkermarkt, Sankt Veit an der Glan and Wolfsberg, the constituency 3 Villach City and Villach-Land and the constituency four districts Feldkirchen, Hermagor and Spittal on the Drava.
In order to move into the Carinthian state parliament, a basic mandate in a constituency was required, for which around 9 to 11% of the votes were required depending on the constituency. It was not until July 2008 that the electoral law reform lowered the entry barrier to 5% across the country. The Greens were able to move into the state parliament for the first time because they won a basic mandate in constituency 1.
Ballot
The official ballot for the state elections is white and has the format A4. After the election, the ballot will be put in a white envelope. In addition to the vote for a party, eligible voters can also give up to three preferential votes, whereby a valid preferential vote is only possible for one candidate from the elected party.
Campaigning parties
Freedom Party of Austria - FPÖ (FPÖ)
The FPÖ provided the governor with its top candidate Jörg Haider and stood with the aim of defending first place and the governor's chair in the 1999 state elections. The election campaign was tailored entirely to the top candidate, Jörg Haider was the central figure on every election campaign poster, while the FPÖ as a party took a back seat, and the party logo was sometimes missing from the posters. The reason for this was that the FPÖ had to accept a series of electoral defeats since the turbulent party conference in Knittelfeld in 2002, while Jörg Haider enjoyed good personal popularity ratings in Carinthia, according to the survey results. The FPÖ also suffered heavy losses (-7%) in the 2003 municipal council elections in Carinthia.
Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ)
The SPÖ went into the election campaign with Deputy Governor Peter Ambrozy as the top candidate. Ambrozy made the claim to the office of governor in the election campaign and set the election goal to achieve first place. The SPÖ was consistently the strongest party until 1999 and had provided the governor until 1989. It was able to benefit from its role in the federal opposition (since 2000) and has since recorded gains in every state election. During the election campaign, she mainly focused on the tried and tested topics of “work” and “social affairs”. In addition, the SPÖ had the largest number of officials, had the largest number of mayors in Carinthia and was able to record strong gains (+ 6%) in the municipal council elections in 2003.
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP)
The ÖVP competed with top candidate Elisabeth Scheucher . She was a member of the National Council of the ÖVP and the wife of the then Mayor of Klagenfurt , Harald Scheucher . During the election campaign, she made people sit up and take notice by stating that Jörg Haider would not be elected governor. This came as a surprise because at the federal level the ÖVP was in coalition with the FPÖ. In the previous municipal council elections in 2003, the ÖVP recorded slight gains (+1.1%). The greatest possible gain was named as the election goal.
The Green Carinthia - The Green Alternative (GREEN)
The Greens ran with the top candidate Rolf Holub , a Klagenfurt artist who had been a local councilor in Klagenfurt since the municipal council elections in 2003. The election goal of the Greens was the first entry into the Carinthian state parliament. "Environment" and control of the parties already represented in the state parliament were named as topics.
Other parties
The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) is also running. In addition, the SAU party (SAU) took part. The SAU party was founded by the farmer and Steindorfer councilor Franz Radinger, the name being an abbreviation for “absolutely independent”.
Overall result
After a turnout of 80.50% in the 1999 state elections, 78.63% of those eligible to vote took part in the state elections in 2004.
| Results 2004 | Results 1999 | Differences | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| be right | % | Mand. | be right | % | Mand. | be right | % | Mand. | |
| Votes cast | 334.431 | 36 | 338.394 | 36 | - 3,963 | ||||
| Invalid | 5,732 | 6,033 | - 301 | ||||||
| Valid | 328,699 | 98.29% | 332,361 | 98.22% | -3,662 | - 0.07% | |||
| Political party | |||||||||
| Freedom Party of Austria | 139,479 | 42.43% | 16 | 139,778 | 42.06% | 16 | - 299 | + 0.37% | 0 |
| Social Democratic Party of Austria | 126,325 | 38.43% | 14th | 109,228 | 32.86% | 12 | + 17.097 | + 5.57% | + 2 |
| Austrian People's Party | 38,256 | 11.64% | 4th | 68,940 | 20.74% | 8th | - 30,684 | - 9.10% | - 4th |
| The Green Carinthia | 22,053 | 6.71% | 2 | 13,056 | 3.93% | 0 | + 8,997 | + 1.26% | + 2 |
| Communist Party of Austria | 1,951 | 0.59% | 0 | 1,359 | 0.41% | 0 | + 592 | + 0.18% | ± 0 |
| SOW | 635 | 0.19% | 0 | nk | + 635 | + 0.19% | ± 0 | ||
consequences
Contrary to the polls, which predicted a head-to-head race between the SPÖ and FPÖ, the FPÖ won the election quite clearly. The previous governor Jörg Haider was re-elected governor with the votes of the FPÖ and ÖVP and the SPÖ abstaining from voting. From 2004 to 2006 there was a coalition between the FPÖ / BZÖ and the SPÖ. In April 2005 the BZÖ split off from the FPÖ. With the exception of MP Franz Schwager, all FPÖ mandataries joined the BZÖ club.
Web links and sources
- The regional elections in Carinthia on March 7, 2004 (pdf) , detailed listing of the results, published by the Office of the Carinthian regional government, regional statistical office
Individual evidence
- ↑ The regional elections in Carinthia on March 7, 2004. (PDF) Office of the Carinthian State Government, State Office for Statistics, March 2004, accessed on August 24, 2015 .
- ↑ Carinthia ( Memento of the original dated May 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Final result of the 2004 state elections
