State election in Vorarlberg 2004
The regional elections in Vorarlberg in 2004 took place on September 19 of that year. 242,509 Vorarlberg residents were eligible to vote for the election. For the first time in this election in Vorarlberg there was no compulsory voting. After the election, despite the absolute majority of the ÖVP, a governing coalition of the FPÖ and ÖVP, the state government of Sausgruber III, was formed .
As in the previous state elections in other Austrian federal states , the FPÖ's losses became clear here too. With a minus of 14.4 percentage points, this state election represents the greatest loss that the FPÖ in Vorarlberg has ever suffered. According to a final analysis of the voter flow by SORA , only 28 percent of FPÖ voters in 1999 voted for this party again. At the same time, more than half of the former Freedom Party voters stayed away from these elections due to the lack of compulsory voting.
Parties available for election
Austrian People's Party
The People's Party stood with the previous Governor Herbert Sausgruber as its top candidate. After the ÖVP had failed to win an absolute majority in the 1999 state elections for the first time in the second republic, it was the party's declared aim to recapture it in the upcoming election.
Freedom Party of Austria
In this election, the liberal party also resorted to its tried and tested top candidate Dieter Egger , who had previously been state governor in the coalition government with the ÖVP . Due to disputes in the federal party and various negative headlines in connection with the promotion of parties, experts predicted that the FPÖ would suffer a severe loss of vote, which ultimately occurred.
Social Democratic Party of Austria
In the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) Elke Sader was again chosen as the top candidate. According to the will of the party leadership, it should make up for the clear defeat in the last state election. This goal could be achieved thanks to solid votes.
The green
The Greens ran for the fifth time in these state elections in Vorarlberg and, like the other parties already represented in the state parliament, were able to send an experienced campaigner into the race with their top candidate Johannes Rauch . The Greens profited greatly from the FPÖ's loss of votes and were able to achieve their best result so far in this election. In addition, the Greens were the only party in these state elections that, in addition to a percentage gain in votes, also received more votes in absolute terms than in the previous election.
Other parties
Parties without previous representation in the state parliament and their top candidates:
- VAU - www.vau-heute.at (VAU) - Bernhard Amann
- List of free citizens (LFB) - Wolfgang Weh
- List for all dissatisfied and self-thinkers (FRIZZ) - Georg Fritz
- DBK - Die Buntkarierten (DBK) - Jogy Thomas Wolfmeyer (only competed in the districts of Bludenz, Dornbirn and Feldkirch)
Election result
| Official end result | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party 1 | be right | percent | +/- | Mandates | +/- |
| ÖVP | 80.112 | 54.92% | + 9.16% | 21st | + 3 |
| SPÖ | 24,609 | 16.87% | + 3.88% | 6th | + 1 |
| FPÖ | 18,881 | 12.94% | - 14.47% | 5 | - 6 |
| The green | 14,829 | 10.17% | + 4.14% | 4th | + 2 |
| VAU | 3,046 | 2.09% | - 0.19% | 0 | 0 |
| Frizz | 2,806 | 1.92% | + 0.70% | 0 | 0 |
| LFB | 1,373 | 0.94% | - | 0 | - |
| DBK | 207 | 0.14% | - | 0 | - |
| total | 145.863 | 100.00% | 36 | ||
1 Party names as abbreviations according to the official election proposal
In the 2004 state elections, 242,509 people were eligible to vote. For the first time, voting was no longer compulsory in Vorarlberg, which explains the comparatively low turnout of 60.64 percent. A total of 147,047 eligible voters cast their votes, 1,184 of them voted invalid. The distribution of seats in the 28th Vorarlberg state parliament , which held its constituent meeting on the day following the election, resulted from the final election result .
Web links
- Website of the state election authority for the state elections in 2004
- SORA voter flow analysis
