!!!Wahlrecht

Electoral Law: After 1848 Austria applied suffrage based on ownership 
of property. Until 1873 the members of the  Abgeordnetenhaus were 
indirectly elected through the provincial diets, then directly 
according to the majority rule. The members of the 4 curiae had to pay 
taxes of at least 10 florins, under Prime Minister E.  Taaffe, 
this limit was reduced to 5 florins in 1882. Count Badeni´s 
electoral reform of 1896 created a more general class of voters, which 
in turn led to the representation of the Social-Democrats in the 
"Abgeordnetenhaus". In 1907 universal suffrage was 
introduced for men, in 1919 for women. The Federal Constitution Act of 
1920 provided for the transition to proportional representation. The 
regulations pertaining to elections to the Nationalrat (National 
Council) were reformed in 1929, 1949, 1970 and 1992. Since May 1, 1993 
National Council elections have been governed by the 
Nationalratswahlordnung 1992 (Federal Law Gazette 417 of July 10, 
1992).

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All Austrian citizens, provided they are not excluded from the right 
to stand for election (one-year prison sentence) and have reached 19 
years of age before January 1 of the election year, are eligible for 
election. All Austrian citizens who have reached 18 years of age 
before January 1 of the election year and have not been 
disenfranchised have the right to vote. All persons entitled to vote 
have to be registered in their main place of residence in a 
voters´ register maintained by the municipalities (since 1973).

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In general, most persons entitled to vote go to the polls at the place 
where they are entered in the voters´ register (those who wish 
to cast their vote at some other polling station have to obtain a 
"polling card" from the competent authority). The election 
date has to be made public by the federal government in the Federal 
Law Gazette.

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Voting is done by secret ballot, in person and by using the official 
ballot, which has to list the parties and their proposed 
representatives and allow sufficient space for preference votes. For 
the purpose of elections the Republic of Austria is divided into 9 
provincial constituencies which correspond to the 9 federal provinces. 
The provincial constituencies are divided into 43 regional 
constituencies (Burgenland and Vorarlberg 2 each, Salzburg 3, 
Carinthia 4, Upper Austria and Tirol 5 each, Lower Austria and Vienna 
7 each, Styria 8). The number of citizens whose principal residence 
according to the latest census is in Austria and the number of those 
citizens who live abroad and are registered in the electoral register 
are added up and the total is divided by 183 (= the total number of 
seats in Parliament). Each provincial constituency receives as many 
seats as corresponds to the percentage of citizens who have their 
principal place of residence in that particular provincial 
constituency. These seats are then assigned in the same proportion to 
the regional constituencies.

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Elections are organised by the electoral authorities. Every 
municipality, except Vienna, appoints its municipal election 
authority. It is responsible for determining polling stations and 
election time, the on-site supervision of the election and the 
counting of the votes. Larger municipalities may be divided into 
electoral districts. In addition, district electoral authorities are 
set up in each political district, in all chartered cities and towns, 
and in each of the district offices in Vienna, while each province has 
a provincial electoral authority and the Federal Ministry of the 
Interior accommodates the Federal electoral authority. The counted 
votes (including preference votes) have to be passed on by the 
municipalities via the districts to the provincial electoral 
authorities from where they are passed on to the federal electoral 
authority. There the number of seats won by the various parties is 
determined.

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In the first allocation round every party receives a number of seats 
equalling the total number of votes they received in the regional 
constituency divided by the electoral quotient. In the second 
allocation round only those parties participate which have received a 
seat in at least one regional constituency in the first allocation 
round or that have won at least 4% of all valid votes cast in Austria. 
In the second round each party receives a number of seats equalling 
the total number of votes they have received in the provincial 
constituency divided by the electoral quotient, minus the seats 
received in the first round. Parties that have introduced a federal 
nomination paper, participate in the third allocation round, in which 
the remaining seats, minus those allocated in the 1%%sup st/%  and 
2%%sup nd/%  rounds, are distributed. The final result is determined 
only after the allocation of the polling card votes.

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The  Federal President is also elected by the general electorate and 
through electoral authorities in accordance with the regulations 
pertaining to elections to the Nationalrat. Some federal provinces 
have introduced a legal obligation to vote. The provincial diets are 
elected by those citizens who have their principal residence in that 
province. The members of municipal councils are elected by those 
Austrian and EU citizens who have their principal residence in that 
municipality. In some federal provinces the owners of second homes are 
also entitled to vote.

!Literature
H. Neisser, M. Handstanger, R. Schick, Das 
Bundeswahlrecht, %%sup 2/%1994; H. Fischer, M. Berger, R. Stein, 
Nationalratswahlordnung 1992, 1993.


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