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Austria Electoral System
The electoral system is based on the principle of
proportional representation. The system's basic outline was
established in the constitution of 1920, although significant
changes were made in 1970 and 1992. Among other changes, the
amendments of 1970 raised the number of seats in the Nationalrat
from 165 to 183.
The 1992 reform of the election law, which went into effect
in May 1993, alters the electoral system for the Nationalrat in a
number of significant ways. It divides the country into nine
provincial electoral districts that correspond to the country's
nine provinces. These districts contain a further forty-three
regional electoral districts. The creation of the small regional
electoral districts is intended to foster a greater feeling of
connection between voters and those who represent them in
parliament. The law also aims to personalize elections by giving
voters greater power than before of electing individual
candidates of the party of their choice by voting directly for
them rather than for the party list of candidates as a whole.
This reform may reduce the power of party leaders to impose their
preselected candidates on the electorate. The law also modifies
vote-counting procedures to ensure that the number of
parliamentary seats won by a party will conform more closely with
votes cast. Lastly, the law attempts to prevent a proliferation
of small parties sitting in the Nationalrat by barring a party
from that body if it has not won at least 4 percent of votes cast
nationwide. However, a party can be represented in parliament by
winning at least one seat in a regional electoral district.
According to the 1992 law, votes in Nationalrat elections are
counted in three stages, although a voter casts only one ballot.
On this ballot, the voter indicates the party of his choice, and
then, if he wishes, he may choose two candidates from this party,
one to be elected from the regional voting district and one from
the provincial voting district. Votes going to a preferred
candidate are called preferential votes. In the first stage of
counting votes, the returns from regional voting districts are
examined; in the second stage, those from provincial voting
districts are examined. In these first two stages, the
Hare
system (see Glossary) is used to determine the proportional
allocation of seats. In the third stage of counting votes,
candidates on the national party list are allocated seats
according to the
d'Hondt method (see Glossary).
A party must win a parliamentary seat in the first stage of
vote counting in order to win seats in the second and third
stages. A candidate who receives preferential votes amounting to
at least one-sixth of the votes his party receives wins a
parliamentary seat. This is also the case for a candidate who
receives preferential votes amounting to at least one-half the
electoral quota (Wahlzahl), that is, the number of valid
ballots in a voting district divided by the number of
parliamentary seats allotted to it. The vote tallying procedures
established by the new law mean that about ninety parliamentary
seats come from regional voting districts, about sixty-five from
provincial voting districts, and roughly twenty-five from the
federal level. All persons aged nineteen and over by January 1
of the year in which the election is held are eligible to vote.
Voter participation has traditionally been very high. In national
elections, it has fallen below 90 percent only once (in 1990,
when it stood at 86 percent). Voting always takes place on a
Sunday.
Data as of December 1993
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