Four percent hurdle (Austria)

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Results of all parliamentary elections in Austria since 1994. The dotted line indicates the four percent hurdle.

The term four percent hurdle refers to a blocking clause in elections to the Austrian National Council , which was introduced in 1992 with the amendment to the National Council election regulations ( Federal Law Gazette No. 471/1992 ). The threshold clause in accordance with Section 77 (2) EuWO ( European Election Regulations ) also applies to Austrian European elections , according to which parties that received less than 4% of the valid votes cast throughout Germany are not entitled to be assigned mandates.

background

The National Council Election Ordinance (NRWO) divides the federal territory into nine state electoral districts , each of which corresponds geographically to one of the nine Austrian federal states . Based on the results of the last census , each state constituency is assigned a certain number of mandates . Burgenland , the electoral district with the lowest population, currently holds seven of the 183 national council seats; in Lower Austria , the most populous country constituency, representing a quota of 36 seats. The number of valid votes cast in each regional constituency is divided by the number of mandates assigned to the respective regional constituency. The result of this division is referred to as the number of votes for the respective Land constituency and represents the number of votes that are necessary for the allocation of a mandate for the representation of the constituency in the National Council.

Each state constituency is further divided into two to seven regional constituencies .

The assignment of mandates to parties takes place in three steps:

  • In the first of the three so-called preliminary proceedings , the number of valid votes that a certain party has received in a certain regional constituency is divided by the number of votes in the state constituency to which the regional constituency in question belongs. The quotient is rounded down. The result is the number of so-called basic mandates that the party in question achieves in the relevant regional constituency. If not all of the participating parties in all regional constituencies have received numbers of votes that are exact integer multiples of the applicable voting numbers, not all available mandates can be awarded in this first round.
  • In the second preliminary investigation, the number of valid votes received by a particular party in a particular state constituency is divided by the number of votes in the relevant state constituency. The quotient is rounded down and reduced by the total number of basic mandates that were allocated to the relevant party in the relevant state constituency. The result represents the number of so-called remaining mandates or remaining voting mandates that the party in question reaches in the relevant state constituency. Even after this round, it is almost certainly not all seats have been assigned.
  • Finally, in the third preliminary investigation, the number of valid votes that a particular party has received throughout Germany is converted into a total number of mandates using the D'Hondt procedure . If this total number is higher than the number of basic and remaining mandates that the party received in the first two rounds, it will receive a corresponding number of additional remaining mandates. If, on the other hand, the party has already received more basic and remaining mandates in the first two rounds than the third round alone would allow it, fewer additional remaining mandates will be given to other parties.

Pursuant to Section 100 (1) and Section 107 (2) of the NRWO, only those parties who either received a basic mandate in the first investigation or who combined at least 4 percent of the valid votes cast nationwide take part in the distribution of remaining mandates through the second and third investigation to have.

Significance of the threshold clause and the basic mandate

A mandate at regional constituency level is still possible regardless of the 4% hurdle at regional constituency level. A mandate that is achieved in this way is called a base mandate . Depending on the size of the regional constituency, it is differently difficult to achieve a basic mandate: The greater the number of votes cast (in relation to the number of votes), the lower the relative proportion of votes must be for a party to receive a basic mandate.

Dividing the number of votes cast per federal state in the 2013 National Council election by the number of mandates to be awarded in the federal states shows that the number of elections was around 25,000 depending on the federal state. That is how many votes in one constituency are necessary for a basic mandate. According to this, around 12% of the votes would have been necessary for a basic mandate in the Upper Styria regional constituency , and around 91% in the East Tyrol constituency . In a “typical” constituency, around 20% is necessary.

If one assumes the same voter turnout in all constituencies and disregards the rounding errors, especially when determining the mandates to be awarded per federal state, 1/183 of the votes cast is necessary for a mandate, but then all votes must come from and come from the same regional constituency.

Since the Austrian electorate is relatively homogeneous in terms of both voter participation and party preferences, a basic mandate is much more difficult to achieve in practice than a nationwide share of four percent. It has never happened before that a party that missed the four percent hurdle has achieved a basic mandate instead. In all recent cases in which the entry of a small party into the National Council was conceivable but questionable, the four percent hurdle was predominantly addressed during the election campaign as well as in the actual election reporting. The fact that it is possible to miss the four percent hurdle but still enter the National Council via a basic mandate is virtually unknown to the broader public.

In the election campaign for the National Council election in Austria in 2006 , however, the topic became topical, as the BZÖ was close to 4% according to all surveys and hoped to win a basic mandate there due to its strong support in Carinthia. On the evening of the election, the basic mandate was narrowly missed, but the four percent hurdle was just skipped.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ National Council election, constituency allocation on the website of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI).
  2. ↑ Result of the 2013 National Council elections on the website of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), accessed on June 21, 2015
  3. ↑ Announcement by the Federal Minister of the Interior on the number of mandates for each constituency for the election of the National Council in accordance with Section 127 ( 5) of the 1992 National Council election regulations - NRWO ( Federal Law Gazette II No. 99/2013 ): “Section 1. Due to changes in territory In the federal state of Styria, the electoral districts listed in §§  2 Paragraph 1 and  3 Paragraph 2 NRWO, based on the results of the regular census of May 15, 2001, have the following number of mandates: [Tables of state constituencies and regional constituencies ] ". - "§ 2. With this announcement, the announcement of the Federal Minister of the Interior regarding the number of mandates for each constituency for the election of the National Council BGBl. II No. 337a / 2002 ceases to be in force." (§ 127 Z 5 NRWO repealed by BGBl . I No. 106/2016 .)