Experts disagree – contestation of Mikl-Leitner’s election postponed

When Mikl-Leitner was elected governor, black and blue used a trick. Lower Austria’s FPÖ leader Udo Landbauer promised during the election campaign that he would not elect Mikl-Leitner as head of state. He did not want to break this promise (at least in a literal sense), so the ballots for the vote were adjusted in such a way that the FPÖ representatives could vote invalid.

As a result, the 14 blue votes have been deleted. Since only 42 of the 56 votes were valid, a simple majority was sufficient and the ÖVP has 23 representatives, nothing stood in the way of a second term from Mikl-Leitner – until Monday.

That’s behind it
State attorney Karl Stöger suddenly expressed concern that it was “legally unclear” whether a simple majority of valid votes would suffice. He considers the statement justified by the fact that the state constitution only explicitly states that invalid votes are disregarded in the election of the state council members. Explosive: Because there were also void votes in Landbauer’s election as vice president of the state, this vote would also be affected by a challenge.

Experts are divided
The cause is assessed differently by two other experts. The case seems clear to constitutional expert Peter Bussjäger, who also prepares an expert opinion for the state parliament of Lower Austria. According to his “first assessment”, the constitutional provision states that blank ballots are invalid – meaning Mikl-Leitner’s election would have been correct. “I don’t think a challenge would have any chance of success,” he explains when asked by “Krone”.

His colleague Bernd-Christian Funk sees it differently. He does not want to make a prognosis “how the Constitutional Court would decide here” and says: “Constitutional jurist Stöger himself says that one could think differently. That’s how I see it. The argument that one could successfully contest the election here , has a certain content. It does not come entirely out of the blue. One could argue for an allegation of manipulation during the electoral process, according to which this would not be in the spirit of the regulation. But you are not walking on solid ground here. “

This is how politicians respond
The SPÖ first demanded clarification of the situation, then declared it would not participate in a “legal exchange of blows” and then referred to the “Krone” for a final decision on Wednesday. “The decision was only postponed until Wednesday,” says the office of designated SPÖ leader Sven Hergovich. You have until Thursday to file a constitutional complaint.

The Neos would support such a constitutional complaint, but could not make it alone. A corresponding complaint would have to be made by at least six MPs on Thursday and the Neos have only three. However, the Greens of Lower Austria were “legally elected” – as well as the ÖVP.

“At today’s presidential meeting, all members except the SPÖ representative did not see any outstanding legal problems in the election of the state government. Anything else would have been extremely surprising: the choice of the state government was correct,” explains ÖVP club president Jochen Danninger out.