By preferential votes

Berchtold and Waibel kick colleagues out of state parliament

The evaluation of the preferential votes was eagerly awaited. This resulted in two major surprises for the ÖVP and the FPÖ in particular: Wolfgang Flach (ÖVP) and Martin Fitz (FPÖ) lost their seats.

On Tuesday evening, not only the preferential votes, but also - after the remaining ballot cards had been counted - the provisional official result of the provincial election arrived: The ÖVP came in at 38.3 percent (15 mandates) and is thus clearly ahead of the FPÖ, which came in second with 28 percent (eleven mandates). They were followed by the Greens with 12.43% (four seats), the SPÖ with 9.06% (three seats) and the NEOS with 8.93% (three seats). Voter turnout was 68.11 percent.

In the run-up to the election, many of the candidates had campaigned for preferential votes. This paid off in particular for Feldkirch ÖVP candidate Julia Berchtold. With 1922 preferential votes, she overtook the black city councillor ahead of her on the district list, Wolfgang Flach, who received 1216 preferential votes.

He shares the fate of Lustenau FPÖ local party chairman Martin Fitz, who would have held a seat in the state parliament before the preferential votes were counted. However, 1827 preferential votes were not enough for Fitz either. He was overtaken by Dornbirn FPÖ leader Christoph Waibel, who received a whopping 3622 preferential votes.

Three Freedom Party members can still hope for a mandate 
However, Fitz has not yet completely written off his seat in the state parliament. In the event of FPÖ participation in government and a government seat for Markus Klien from Hohenems, he could move up via the Dornbirn district list.

Kornelia Spiß (Bludenz district) can also hope to return to the state parliament - she would replace Christof Bitschi. And in the Feldkirch district, Freedom Party employee representative Michael Koschat could take over the state parliament mandate from Daniel Allgäuer or Andrea Kerbleder, both of whom have very good chances in the race for government office.

Markus Wallner won the most votes
With 80,667 preferential votes, the unofficial title of "Preferential Vote Emperor" clearly went to Markus Wallner, who came first for the People's Party in all four districts. As the blue number one in all districts, Christof Bitschi campaigned for the cross and in the end received 57,826 preferential votes. Green Party leader Daniel Zadra (17,201) landed in third place. NEOS leader Claudia Gamon recorded 13,728 preferential votes, while SPÖ leader Mario Leiter received 10,965.

The two ÖVP government members Martina Rüscher and Christian Gantner can also be proud of their results. They only ran in their respective home districts and won 8997 and 5401 preferential votes in the district of Bregenz and Bludenz respectively.