The 2009 Vorarlberg state election was held on 20 September 2009 to elect the members of the Landtag of Vorarlberg.
The governing Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) retained their majority with losses, while the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) recovered nearly all the losses it had suffered in 2004. The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) lost much of their support and fell to fourth place behind The Greens, who stayed essentially level with the strong result they achieved in 2004. Governor Herbert Sausgruber was re-elected by the Landtag.
Background In the 2004 election, the ÖVP achieved a strong result which allowed them to regain a comfortable majority. This was matched by major losses for the FPÖ, who fell from second to third place. Both the SPÖ and Greens also benefited. In addition, turnout fell catastrophically from 88% to just 60%.
Electoral system The 36 seats of the Landtag of Vorarlberg are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between four multi-member constituencies, corresponding to the districts of Vorarlberg. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 5 percent state-wide electoral threshold. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the Hagenbach-Bischoff quota, with any remaining seats allocated at the state level, to ensure overall proportionality between a party's vote share and its share of seats.
Contesting parties The table below lists parties represented in the previous Landtag. Name Ideology Leader 2004 result Votes (%) Seats ÖVP Austrian People's Party Christian democracy Herbert Sausgruber 54.9% SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria Social democracy Michael Ritsch 16.9% FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria Right-wing populismEuroscepticism Dieter Egger 12.9% GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative Green politics Johannes Rauch 10.2%
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, four parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.
The Gsiberger (GSI) Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) wir-gemeinsam.at (WIR) Kiebitz
Result Party Votes % +/− Seats +/− Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 90,108 50.79 –4.13 20 –1 Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 44,562 25.12 +12.18 9 +4 The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 18,763 10.58 +0.41 4 ±0 Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 17,779 10.02 –6.85 3 –3 The Gsiberger (GSI) 3,090 1.74 New 0 New Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) 2,134 1.20 New 0 New wir-gemeinsam.at (WIR) 647 0.36 New 0 New Kiebitz 331 0.19 New 0 New Invalid/blank votes 1,297 – – – – Total 178,711 100 – 36 0 Registered voters/turnout 261,132 68.44 +7.80 – –Source: Vorarlberg Government
Results by constituency Constituency ÖVP FPÖ Grüne SPÖ Others % % % % % Bludenz 52.0 25.6 7.2 12.1 3.1 Bregenz 54.6 22.6 9.8 9.7 3.3 Dornbirn 45.1 29.2 11.7 9.8 4.2 Feldkirch 49.6 24.8 12.9 9.2 3.5 Total 50.8 25.1 10.6 10.0 3.5 Source: Vorarlberg Government
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