Municipal councils and mayors have been newly elected in all 171 Burgenland municipalities. In total, 277,477 PEOPLE have the right to vote. The “Krone” reports from 10:00 with a live ticker.
The election campaign was peaceful for a long time. There wasn’t really much excitement. While local issues have traditionally been at the center of municipal and mayoral elections, this time they have been largely overshadowed by the energy crisis, inflation and the increasing number of refugee arrests at the border.
SPÖ wants to raise, ÖVP keeps the result
Immediately before the vote, all parties were optimistic. As a reminder, in the 2017 elections, the SPÖ got 83 mayors, the ÖVP 82 and six went to the lists.
The parties have clearly defined their election goals. “We want to significantly widen the gap with the ÖVP, increase the percentage and win two to four new mayors,” explains SPÖ state manager Roland Fürst. The Social Democrats are active in all communities.
“We are the only party on an equal footing with the SPÖ. We want to maintain this level,” said ÖVP chairman of the state party Christian Sagartz. The People’s Party runs in most places.
The FPÖ is present in 77 municipalities and hopes to have a mayor and join the city senates. “We want to become stronger, especially where we are already established,” explains state party chairman Alexander Petschnig, who himself is fighting for fourth place on the blue list in Neusiedl am See.
Numerous citizen lists are involved
Greens and NEOS want to get a mandate in all the communities where they are on the ballot. In addition to the MFG and the Klartext Burgenland movement, numerous citizen lists are also involved in the battle for votes. A total of 520 local parties or lists with 12,253 candidates are running. 423 people apply for the position of mayor.
The state capital Eisenstadt has the most voters with 12,421, the fewest in Tschanigraben with only 89. At the same time, there are a number of innovations in the election: the preference votes now have more weight and the members of the electoral authorities receive an expense allowance.
Last polling stations close at 4 p.m
A total of 439 polling stations open their doors today. In Bad Sauerbrunn early birds could go to the polls from 6.45 am. The other locations are gradually opening. The last polling stations close at 4 p.m.
More than one in eight voters (13.84 percent) made their decision on early Election Day. In addition, 26,637 absentee ballots were requested.
Source: Krone
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