2015 Burgenland state election

31 May 2015

All 36 seats in the Landtag of Burgenland
19 seats needed for a majority
Turnout190,556 (76.0%)
Decrease 1.3%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Landesfeuerwehrjugendleistungsbewerb 2016 Großpetersdorf 34.jpg
Leader Hans Niessl Franz Steindl Johann Tschürtz
Party SPÖ ÖVP FPÖ
Last election 18 seats, 48.3% 13 seats, 34.6% 3 seats, 9.0%
Seats won 15 11 6
Seat change Decrease 3 Decrease 2 Increase 3
Popular vote 77,947 54,082 27,963
Percentage 41.9% 29.1% 15.0%
Swing Decrease 6.3% Decrease 5.5% Increase 6.1%

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Regina Petrik Manfred Kölly
Party Greens LBL
Last election 1 seat, 4.1% 1 seat, 4.0%
Seats won 2 2
Seat change Increase 1 Increase 1
Popular vote 11,964 8,970
Percentage 6.4% 4.8%
Swing Increase 2.3% Increase 0.8%

Governor before election

Hans Niessl
SPÖ

Elected Governor

Hans Niessl
SPÖ

The 2015 Burgenland state election was held on 31 May 2015 to elect the members of the 21st Landtag of Burgenland.[1]

The two major parties, the governing Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), both lost votes.[2] The three minor parties made gains and each doubled their representation in the Landtag.[3]

With the SPÖ falling substantially short of a majority, they required a coalition partner to govern.[4] They subsequently formed a coalition with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), violating the party's federal directive not to work with FPÖ in government. The decision was subject to backlash and protests, but the coalition took office regardless.[5][6]

Background

In the 2010 election, the SPÖ won 48.3% of votes and fell one seat short of an absolute majority. They thus negotiated a working agreement with the ÖVP.

Prior to amendments made in 2014, the Burgenland constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. As such, the government was a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualified for at least one cabinet position. In December 2014, the SPÖ and ÖVP voted to amend the constitution to remove this requirement.[7] As such, the 2015 election was the first in post-war Burgenland history in which conventional coalition formation could take place.[8]

Electoral system

The 36 seats of the Landtag of Burgenland are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between seven multi-member constituencies, corresponding to the seven districts of Burgenland (the statutory cities of Eisenstadt and Rust are combined with Eisenstadt-Umgebung District). Apportionment of the seats is based on the results of the most recent census.[9]

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.[9]

In addition to voting for a political party, voters may cast preferential votes for specific candidates of that party, but are not required to do so. These additional votes do not affect the proportional allocation based on the vote for the party or list, but can change the rank order of candidates on a party's lists at the state and constituency level. Voters may cast one preferential vote at the state level, or three at the constituency level. A voter may not cross party-lines to cast a preference vote for a candidate of another party; such preference votes are invalid.[9]

Contesting parties

Name Ideology Leader 2010 result
Votes (%) Seats Councillors
SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria
Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs
Social democracy Hans Niessl 48.3%
18 / 36
4 / 7
ÖVP Austrian People's Party
Österreichische Volkspartei
Christian democracy Franz Steindl 34.6%
13 / 36
3 / 7
FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria
Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs
Right-wing populism
Euroscepticism
Johann Tschürtz 9.0%
3 / 36
GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative
Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative
Green politics Regina Petrik 4.1%
1 / 36
LBL List Burgenland
Liste Burgenland
Regionalism Manfred Kölly 4.0%
1 / 36

In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, four parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.[10]

Opinion polling

Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample
size
SPÖ ÖVP FPÖ Grüne LBL NEOS Lead
2015 state election 31 May 2015 41.9 29.1 15.0 6.4 4.8 2.3 12.8
Gallup 21–23 Apr 2015 400 44 31 13 6 3 3 13
Hajek April 2015 1,000 46 30 12 6 3 3 16
2010 state election 30 May 2010 48.3 34.6 9.0 4.1 4.0 13.7

Results

Party Votes  % +/− Seats +/−
Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 77,947 41.92 –6.34 15 –3
Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 54,082 29.08 –5.54 11 –2
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 27,963 15.04 +6.06 6 +3
The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 11,964 6.43 +2.28 2 +1
List Burgenland (LBL) 8,970 4.82 +0.82 2 +1
NEOS – The New Austria (NEOS) 4,337 2.33 New 0 New
Christian Party of Austria (CPÖ) 699 0.38 +0.38 0 ±0
Invalid/blank votes 4,594
Total 190,556 100 36 0
Registered voters/turnout 250,607 76.04 –1.26
Source: Burgenland Government
Popular vote
SPÖ
41.92%
ÖVP
29.08%
FPÖ
15.04%
GRÜNE
6.43%
LBL
4.82%
NEOS
2.33%
CPÖ
0.38%
Landtag seats
SPÖ
41.67%
ÖVP
30.56%
FPÖ
16.67%
GRÜNE
5.56%
LBL
5.56%

Results by constituency

Constituency SPÖ ÖVP FPÖ Grüne LBL NEOS Others Total
seats
Turnout
 %S  %S  %S  %S  %S  %S  %
Neusiedl44.5328.0115.916.02.52.60.5573.9
Eisenstadt39.4230.7213.38.65.12.60.4476.2
Mattersburg46.5222.5115.96.46.02.50.3375.0
Oberpullendorf42.5230.7110.25.79.41.9379.1
Oberwart41.6227.6118.016.33.62.30.5475.8
Güssing39.9135.0114.75.23.01.80.4278.6
Jennersdorf35.332.219.26.44.52.00.4074.2
Remaining seats34422015
Total41.91529.11115.066.424.822.300.43676.0
Source: Burgenland 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 on a state level were as follows:[11]

Party Pos. Candidate Votes
SPÖ 1 Hans Niessl 33,607
ÖVP 1 Franz Steindl 13,707
FPÖ 1 Johann Tschürtz 9,048
LBL 1 Manfred Kölly 3,468
GRÜNE 1 Regina Petrik 3,215
FPÖ 2 Ilse Benkö 2,365
ÖVP 6 Walter Temmel 2,199
ÖVP 14 Patrik Fazekas 2,010
SPÖ 4 Verena Dunst 1,962
ÖVP 2 Michaela Resetar 1,496

References

  1. Burgenland - State election 2015 (in German)
  2. "Austria States, legislative elections". Parties and elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  3. "Burgenland Vote 2015". Vienna.at.
  4. "Burgenland gets SPÖ and FPÖ coalition". The Local.
  5. "Red-blue government fixed". ORF. 5 June 2015.
  6. "Austrian Social Democrats move closer toward ending ban on far-right alliances". Reuters.
  7. "Proporz has been abolished". ORF. 11 December 2014.
  8. "Constitutional reform fixed: SPÖ and ÖVP agree". ORF. 16 September 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 "RIS - Landtag election regulation 1995 - Provincial law consolidates, version as of 03.08.2020". Burgenland Government.
  10. "Landtag election 2015". Carinthian Government.
  11. "Preferential votes". Burgenland Government.
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