The 2009 Upper Austrian state election was held on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the Landtag of Upper Austria.

The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) made gains but fell just short of an overall majority. The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) suffered major losses, falling to just under a quarter of the vote, while the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) recovered some of the losses they had taken in the 2003 election. The ÖVP under Governor Josef Pühringer subsequently renewed its working agreement with the Greens which had been signed after the previous election.

Background The Upper Austrian constitution mandates that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, ) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. As such, the government is a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualify for at least one state councillor. Despite this, parties still establish formal coalitions to organise cabinet positions and ensure a Landtag majority for legislative purposes.

In the 2003 state election, the ÖVP maintained a small lead over the SPÖ, which achieved a strong swing in its favour while the FPÖ's support collapsed. The Greens achieved a respectable result of 9%, and crucially achieved balance of power in the state government. The ÖVP and SPÖ each won four councillors, while the Greens won one; the FPÖ failed to win any. The ÖVP signed a working coalition with the Greens, giving rise to the first ÖVP–Green government in Austria.

Electoral system The 56 seats of the Landtag of Upper Austria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between five multi-member constituencies. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 4 percent state-wide electoral threshold. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the Hare quota, with any remaining seats allocated using the D'Hondt method 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 2003 result Votes (%) Seats Councillors ÖVP Austrian People's Party Christian democracy Josef Pühringer 43.4% SPÖ Social Democratic Party of Austria Social democracy Erich Haider 38.3% GRÜNE The Greens – The Green Alternative Green politics Rudolf Anschober 9.1% FPÖ Freedom Party of Austria Right-wing populismEuroscepticism Manfred Haimbuchner 8.4%

In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, three parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.

Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) The Christians (DC)

Results Party Votes % +/− Seats +/− +/− Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) 400,365 46.76 +3.34 28 +3 5 +1 Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) 213,555 24.94 –13.39 14 –8 2 –2 Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 130,937 15.29 +6.89 9 +5 1 +1 The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) 78,569 9.18 +0.12 5 ±0 1 ±0 Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) 24,268 2.83 New 0 New 0 New Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) 4,812 0.56 –0.22 0 ±0 0 ±0 The Christians (DC) 3,721 0.43 New 0 New 0 New Invalid/blank votes 16,569 – – – – – – Total 872,796 100 – 56 0 9 0 Registered voters/turnout 1,086,310 80.35 +1.70 – – – –Source: Upper Austrian Government

Results by constituency Constituency ÖVP SPÖ FPÖ Grüne Others Totalseats Turnout % % % % % Linz and Surrounds 38.6 4 31.2 3 15.1 1 11.4 1 3.8 9 74.0 Innviertel 50.6 4 19.6 1 18.9 1 7.0 4.0 6 81.1 Hausruckviertel 47.0 6 22.9 3 17.5 2 9.0 1 3.8 12 81.0 Traunviertel 45.6 4 27.8 2 13.4 1 8.8 4.5 7 80.1 Mühlviertel 52.7 6 22.7 2 12.0 1 9.2 1 3.5 10 86.6 Remaining seats 4 3 3 2 12 Total 46.8 28 24.9 14 15.3 9 9.2 5 3.8 56 80.3 Source: Upper Austrian Government

References