On Saturday, the Federal Electoral Authority granted three candidates for the post of Federal President a “grace period” for submitting the 6,000 statements of support needed. The deadline for submitting nominations was the day before. Seven of the eleven proposals received sufficient support, four not. One of these four is not eligible because of the lack of a contribution to the costs of 3600 euros, the government announced on Saturday evening.
This means that three of the applicants can collect more signatures until midnight on Tuesday. Despite the lack of support, Wolfgang Ottowitz, David Packer, Johann Peter Schutte and Robert Marschall submitted their proposal on Friday. The election authorities did not disclose on Saturday which of them did not contribute to the costs.
Vote: further expansion would be a surprise
Of course, it would be a surprise if the ballot continued to grow – at least a look at the past suggests that: Marschall, for example, used the grace period when he took office in 2016 – and in the end still didn’t even have a quarter of the Supporter needed. After the grace period expires on Tuesday, the electoral authority will count the statements of support again. It then meets again on Thursday (as required by law on the 31st day before the election) to finalize and announce the nominations. The ballots can then be sent to the press.
Seven candidates identified on the ballot
By Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline, a total of 11 nominations had been submitted to the federal electoral authority. Seven of them received sufficient support, they will be recorded on the ballot. MFG boss Michael Brunner, blogger Gerald Grosz (formerly FPÖ/BZÖ), FPÖ candidate Walter Rosenkranz, shoe manufacturer Heinrich Staudinger, incumbent Alexander Van der Bellen, lawyer and ex-“Krone” columnist Tassilo Wallentin, and the founder of De Beer Party, Dominik Wlazny (aka “Marco Pogo”) will appear on the ballot in alphabetical order.
The number of statements of support above 6,000 does not affect the ranking on the ballot and is only announced by the candidates themselves. According to his own statements, Van der Bellen obtained the most signatures with about 28,000, followed by Rosencrantz with 18,500 and Wallentin with 18,000. Brunner reported about 15,000 signatures, Staudinger counted 9,085. Grosz estimated the number at more than 9,000 and Wlazny – who had submitted first – at more than 6,000.
In addition to the seven candidates for the October 9 federal presidential election already on the ballot, a total of about 20 other candidates have tried to get on the ballot over the past three and a half weeks. That is in any case longer than ever before: only in the first direct elections in 1951 and in the previous elections in 2016 there was an approximately equal selection with six candidates each.
Source: Krone
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