After objection

Political rebel blows up the municipal council: now a new election

The new election dispute revolved around a slipped list of candidates on the official notice board of the municipality of Gablitz.(Bild: zVg/Cech)

The new election in Gablitz costs citizens and the municipality around 22,000 euros. The parties want to do without the posters for the new election. Curious: not even the "election winner" FPÖ wanted to support the objection.

Stunned. There is no other way for Mayor Michael Cech to describe his feelings. As reported, new elections must be held in Gablitz. When is now at the discretion of the state. The mayor is assuming the end of May. The ÖVP local leader does not fear for his absolute majority, which he was able to defend on 26 January. However, this does not take away his anger at the competitor who forced the new election.

Mistake noticed on January 2
Political rebel Robert Marschall had already noticed on 2 January that the Freedom Party's list of candidates had slipped behind that of the Neos on the public notice board. A mistake that no one disputes. But instead of drawing the attention of those responsible, the Citizens' List candidate took a photo as proof and sat back. Then on the actual election day, according to several witnesses, he boasted that their vote was superfluous - he would contest the election anyway.

Fortunately, the work of the municipal council continues unhindered until the new election.

Michael Cech, Bürgermeister von Gablitz

Which makes Michael Cech's anger a little easier to understand: "We could have easily rectified this flaw in the announcement." Not even the "disadvantaged" FPÖ, which had doubled to two seats in the election, wanted to support the objection. Nevertheless, it was upheld. And so the citizens will have to go to the polls once again - whether they will do so is written in the stars. The Wienerwald municipality is assuming a significantly lower turnout. However, taxpayers will have to pay for Marschall's plan: it will cost 22,000 euros from the municipal coffers to handle everything from printing costs and the mailing of polling cards to personnel costs and election information for citizens. "That doesn't even include the voluntary hours of the assessors," says Cech.

That he is not alone in his opinion about the "incomprehensibility" of the re-run is proven by the fact that all parties have already agreed not to put up any posters for the new election against their will. Not at the negotiating table, by the way, was Robert Marschall, who recently barely got above the two percent mark ...