Electoral maps decide

Shaky race for a seat in the new National Council

The next tranche of absentee ballots was also counted in Burgenland on Monday. For the time being, nothing has changed in the ranking of the parties in the state result. The battle for seats has not yet been decided.

The absentee ballots received by the district electoral authorities between Friday afternoon and the close of voting on Sunday were counted. In addition, there were also absentee ballots that were handed in in their own regional constituency. In total, this involved around 3500 ballot papers. However, the result at provincial level only changed slightly as a result. The FPÖ is still in the lead with 28.8% (+11.5%), followed by the ÖVP 28.6% (-9.7%), the SPÖ 27% (-2.4%), the Neos 6.5% (+1.6%) and the Greens 4.7% (-3.4%).

FPÖ duo: Alexander Petschnig and Norbert Hofer have secured their seats as things stand.(Bild: zVg)

The allocation of seats is also exciting. Five years ago, the ÖVP and SPÖ each won two seats in the National Council, the FPÖ one. However, there will now be changes due to the election results.

Christoph Zarits (ÖVP) has made it back into the National Council(Bild: Parlamentsdirektion/Johannes Zinner)

As things stand at present, Alexander Petschnig (FPÖ), Christoph Zarits (ÖVP) and Maximilian Köllner (SPÖ) have won a basic mandate in the North regional constituency - Northern Burgenland. The result in the South constituency - South and Central Burgenland - was completely different: no candidate was able to achieve the required number of votes for a mandate. Five years ago, the President of the Chamber of Agriculture, Niki Berlakovich (ÖVP), succeeded in doing so. He must now await the second investigation in the state constituency.

Niki Berlakovich (ÖVP) must tremble about entering parliament(Bild: P. Huber)

After the counting of the ballot cards on Tuesday, he held a mandate there. However, this is currently only secured by a hair's breadth - by 49 votes. Berlakovich now has to tremble until Thursday about his re-entry into the National Council. Then the last ballot cards will be counted - those that were cast in foreign regional constituencies.

Maximilian Köllner (SPÖ) remains in the House.(Bild: Charlotte Titz)

However, a parliamentary seat for the former Third National Council President Norbert Hofer (FPÖ) is well secured. He currently receives a mandate via the state list. The SPÖ also won a second seat there in the 2019 National Council elections. This is now likely to be gone. Köllner will therefore be the only representative of the SPÖ Burgenland in the House in future.