Here you will find frequently asked questions on the topics of elections and Parliament, voting rights, frequency, and proportional and winner-takes-all voting systems.
Austria was the first country in Europe to lower the voting age to 16 for all citizens. All Austrian citizens who have reached the age of 16 are eligible to vote in
With the 2007 electoral reform, the voting age in Austria was lowered to 16 (from 18 previously).
For nationwide elections (National Council elections, Federal Presidential elections, European elections) and for the right to vote in nationwide referendums, plebiscites and popular initiatives, this was implemented by the 2007 Electoral Law Amendment Act, Federal Law Gazette I No. 28/2007. The amendments to the Federal Constitutional Law (e.g. Art. 26 B-VG) were made in Federal Law Gazette I No. 27/2007.
At the same time, the age of eligibility was lowered from 19 to 18. (Only for Federal Presidential elections does it remain 35 years.)
The provisions for provincial and local council elections subsequently had to be adapted by the provinces. The "principle of homogeneity" in electoral law prohibits the provinces from making the provisions for provincial elections more restrictive than those laid down in the Federal Constitution for elections to the National Council, or from making the conditions for local council elections more restrictive than those for provincial elections. (Art. 95(2) and Art. 117(2) B-VG).
Universal suffrage for men and women was introduced in Austria in 1918 (with the Act of 12 November 1918 on the form of government). It was first applied in 1919, more than 100 years ago, in the election to the Constituent National Assembly. (Universal and equal suffrage for men had already been introduced in 1907.)
The voting age has been lowered several times over the last few decades. As recently as 1968, the active voting age for National Council and Federal Presidential elections was 21, and the passive voting age for National Council elections was 29 (and 35 for Federal Presidential elections).
In local council elections (or, in Vienna, district council elections) and European elections, non-Austrian EU citizens with their main residence in Austria are also eligible to vote. To do so, they must be registered in the relevant electoral register or the European electoral register. More information can be found on oesterreich.gv.at.
Active voting rights refer to the right to vote. All Austrian citizens who are at least 16 years old at the time of the election are eligible to vote in the National Council election, provided they are not excluded from voting.
Exclusion from the right to vote can take place only in connection with a court conviction by express decision of the judge. This can generally affect persons who have been convicted by a domestic court for an intentional criminal offence and given a prison sentence of more than five years (not suspended) or given a prison sentence of more than one year for certain offences such as treason, electoral fraud, certain cases of abuse of office, Nazi revivalism, terrorism, or organised crime.
The passive right to vote is the right to stand for election, the right to be elected. All men and women who have Austrian citizenship on the cut-off date, are at least 18 years old on election day, and are not excluded from eligibility can stand for election to the National Council. Persons who have been convicted by a domestic court for one or more intentional and officially-prosecuted criminal offences and have been sentenced to
are excluded from eligibility. The exclusion ends six months after the sentence has been served.
The Constitution stipulates in general terms that the Austrian Parliament, municipal councils and also Austrian Members of the European Parliament are elected according to the principles of proportional representation. Further details are regulated in the respective electoral laws (e.g. National Council Election Regulations, European Election Regulations, Provincial Election Regulations and Municipal Election Regulations in the respective Federal Provinces).
Proportional representation attempts to convert the votes cast as accurately as possible into the distribution of seats in Parliament.
Proportional representation is characterised by two key elements: firstly, the parties' election proposals (lists of candidates from the individual electoral parties – and not individuals who, for example, stand in only one constituency) and, secondly, the so-called electoral quota. The electoral quota determines how many votes are needed to win a seat. The number of votes cast (e.g. in a constituency) is divided by the number of seats to be allocated there. The number calculated in this way is the electoral quota. Each party then receives as many seats as the electoral quota is contained in the number of votes cast for it.
However, such a calculation will often lead to results with decimal places, and it is not possible to allocate half a seat, for example. There are therefore many mathematical models and different procedural steps for determining an election result. These are intended to ensure that the "remaining votes" and "remaining seats" that are left over after division by the electoral quotient are distributed as fairly as possible.
The socio-political purpose of proportional representation is to ensure that social and political groups in a country are represented as fairly as possible according to their share of the vote. Proportional representation is therefore considered by many to be particularly "fair" – unlike its alternative, the winner-takes-all system.
One disadvantage of the proportional representation system is the risk of fragmentation of the party landscape. Even very small parties have a good chance of obtaining enough votes to win a seat in Parliament. This means that radical and extremist parties, or parties that campaign on a single issue, can also enter Parliament. Such parties usually demand a "high price" for their approval of legislative proposals and can thus paralyse parliamentary proceedings.
To counteract this, electoral laws usually set a percentage threshold. This means that a party must obtain a certain percentage of votes across the entire country in order to be eligible for a seat. In Austria, this threshold has been set at 4% of the nationwide vote for the National Council election. However, a party that does not reach the percentage threshold can still enter the National Council if it succeeds in obtaining a so-called basic mandate in a regional constituency.
Another criticism of the proportional representation system is that, although it may guarantee a largely proportional representation of the various parties and political orientations, it usually makes the formation of a government difficult and often protracted. This is because the elections rarely result in clear majorities, which means that coalitions of several parties are usually necessary.
In contrast to proportional representation, in a winner-takes-all voting system, seats are not allocated on a percentage basis according to the share of votes received by the parties. As a rule, only one candidate per party runs in each constituency. Whoever receives the majority of votes is elected. The votes of the losing candidates are forfeited, which is why this principle is also known as the "winner-takes-all principle".
Proponents of the winner-takes-all system point out that it usually leads to clear majorities in Parliament. This makes it easier to form a government and creates stable governments. It also prevents party fragmentation (as candidates from smaller parties have little chance of winning a seat). Another advantage is that it allows voters to vote for individuals rather than parties in their constituency.
However, the fact that the winner-takes-all voting system favours a two-party system is also viewed critically: as a result, many social and political groups are not represented in Parliament and many votes are effectively "lost" after the election. It is also easier to influence the election result by skilfully drawing constituency boundaries ("constituency geometry", or "gerrymandering").
In 1993, the Federal Constitution (Art. 26 B-VG) stipulated that exclusion from the right to vote and stand for election can "only be the result of a court conviction".
Previously, the relevant constitutional provision had stated that exclusion could be "the result of a court conviction or order". Accordingly, Section 24 of the 1971 National Council Election Regulations still provided for exclusion "due to lack of legal capacity": Persons "for whom a guardian has been appointed pursuant to Section 273 of the Austrian Civil Code" (or, prior to the introduction of guardianship law, persons "who are fully or partially incapacitated") were thus also excluded from the right to vote.
Today, persons for whom an adult representative (formerly: guardian) has been appointed are eligible to vote. This goes back to a decision by the Constitutional Court (G 109/87) in October 1987, which repealed Section 24 of the National Council Election Regulations 1971 (Federal Law Gazette No. 391/1970 as amended by Federal Law Gazette No. 136/1983) as unconstitutional because it violated the principle of equality.
The Constitutional Court justified the repeal of this provision on the one hand by stating that it linked the exclusion from the right to vote solely to an official formal act, namely the "appointment" of a guardian, and in doing so did not take into account the (different) reasons for this measure in any way. On the other hand, it found the provision to be contrary to the principle of equality because a person suffering from the same health problems who was not appointed a guardian (e.g. due to support from public institutions) did not lose their right to vote.
Until the 2011 electoral reform, exclusion from the right to vote and from eligibility for election was regulated in the same way and occurred automatically in the event of a sentence of more than one year's imprisonment imposed by a domestic court for one or more intentional criminal offences. This exclusion ended six months after the sentence had been served.
With the new regulations in 2011, the rules governing exclusion from the right to vote were decoupled from those governing exclusion from eligibility (see Art. 26(5) B-VG).
The provisions for exclusion from eligibility remained unchanged in 2011 and were then tightened in 2016 (Federal Law Gazette I No. 41/2016): From then on, a person was excluded from eligibility (and, as before, automatically excluded) if they had been sentenced to more than six months' imprisonment without parole or to more than one year's imprisonment with parole.
A further tightening took place with the Corruption Criminal Law Amendment Act 2023 (Federal Law Gazette I No. 100/2023) through an additional provision: A person convicted of a prison sentence of more than six months for the corruption offences specified in Sections 304 to 307b (such as bribery, accepting advantages, corruption, granting advantages) shall be disqualified from eligibility, regardless of whether the prison sentence was suspended or unsuspended.
The exclusion from eligibility ends six months after the sentence has been served (Section 41 NRWO).
The grounds for exclusion from the right to vote were fundamentally revised in 2011. This revision was made in response to the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of "Frodl v. Austria". Since then, individuals can be excluded from voting only if the exclusion is decided on a case-by-case basis by a court (Section 22 NRWO). The automatic loss of the right to vote upon conviction with a prison sentence of a certain length was thus abolished.
Since then, based on the circumstances of the individual case, the court may exclude from the right to vote anyone who has been convicted of an intentional criminal offence and sentenced to a non-suspended prison term of more than five years.
For certain offences, however, a conviction to a non-suspended prison sentence of at least one year is sufficient for the right to vote to be revoked by a court decision in individual cases. These offences are
Disqualification from voting rights begins when the judgment becomes final and ends as soon as the sentence has been served and any preventive measures involving deprivation of liberty have been carried out or have ceased to apply. If the sentence has been served only by crediting time spent in pre-trial detention, the disqualification ends when the judgment becomes final.
The provision already contained in the Federal Constitutional Law of 1920 that "Members of ruling houses or families that formerly ruled" are excluded from eligibility for election as Federal President was deleted from the Constitution and the Federal Presidential Election Act by the 2011 Electoral Law Amendment Act (Federal Law Gazette I No. 43/2011). However, it is expressly clarified that the "Habsburg Law" passed in 1919, i.e. the regulation of property rights issues, remains unaffected by this new regulation.
A constituency is a (usually contiguous) part of an electoral area. In National Council elections, the entire Federal territory is divided into constituencies, and in provincial elections, a province is divided into electoral districts. In local council elections, the municipality is usually not divided into constituencies. Within a constituency, there are polling districts where voters cast their votes and where the votes are counted. Within the constituency, the votes cast are then converted into the number of seats to be allocated in that constituency. This is done for each constituency without taking into account the voting results of the other constituencies.
Depending on whether there is only one seat or several seats to be filled in the constituency, a distinction is made between single-seat constituencies and multi-seat constituencies. Single-seat constituencies are usually found in winner-takes-all voting systems. Multi-seat constituencies occur in both proportional representation and winner-takes-all voting systems. In Austria, only East Tyrol forms a single-member constituency in the National Council elections.
In principle, the seats to be allocated in a constituency can be allocated to the parties according to two principles:
In multi-member constituencies, either all seats in the constituency can go to the party with the majority of votes, or they can be distributed among the various parties according to their share of the vote. In the latter case, it is advantageous for small parties if there are not many small constituencies, but rather a few large ones, because then a smaller percentage of the votes is sufficient to win a seat.
In National Council and Provincial Diet elections in Austria, the seats in the constituency are allocated according to the parties' share of the vote.
In the party system, political officials are selected by the parties. They decide who is allowed to stand for election. Voters have little or no influence on the drawing up of candidate lists. However, the establishment of (smaller) constituencies leads to a stronger relationship between voters and candidates. By casting preferential votes, voters also have a greater opportunity to change the ranking of candidates.
In addition, candidates and Members of Parliament generally feel a sense of obligation to "their" constituency. They see themselves as representatives of their constituency and advocate for the concerns of its citizens in the National Council or Provincial Diets. "Constituency work", i.e. the efforts of MPs to address the concerns of citizens, businesses, interest groups, etc. in their constituency and maintaining constant contact with them, is one of the main focuses of MPs' work.
One criticism of the establishment of constituencies arises from a certain tension with the principle of equal suffrage. Firstly, the size of the constituencies (i.e. the number of citizens or the number of eligible voters) is not usually the same. However, only a whole number of seats can be allocated to a constituency, not a fraction or decimal number. This means that the number of citizens represented by a Member of Parliament varies from constituency to constituency.
A further inequality arises from the principle of population size, as citizens who are not eligible to vote are also counted when allocating seats to constituencies. This means that constituencies with a younger population, i.e. with more children, receive comparatively more seats. The vote of an eligible voter in such a constituency therefore carries more weight.
The Federal Constitutional Law (B-VG) provides for a division into constituencies for both National Council elections (Art. 26(2) B-VG) and Provincial Diet elections (Art. 95(3) B-VG). Municipal election regulations may also provide for constituencies (Art. 117(2) B-VG).
Further details on constituencies for National Council elections are explained in the FAQs on National Council Elections.
For Federal Presidential elections, the Federal Presidential Election Act (§ 3(1)) provides for the division of the federal territory into nine provincial constituencies.
There is no division into constituencies (or, in other words, there is only a single, nationwide constituency) for European elections (Art. 23a(2) B-VG).
The Constitution expressly stipulates that, apart from a division into constituencies, the electorate may not be divided into any other "electoral bodies" (Art. 26(2), Art. 95(3), Art. 117(2) B-VG).
Such electoral bodies existed during the monarchy, when suffrage was based on a curial system. At that time, there were four curiae, i.e. classes of voters: large landowners, chambers of commerce and industry, towns, and rural communities. However, the distribution of seats among the individual curiae did not correspond to the ratio of their respective numbers of voters or citizens. The number of voters per representative varied greatly. After the introduction of universal (but not yet equal) male suffrage in 1896, 5,000 voters in the large landowners' curia were able to fill 85 seats, while 5.3 million voters in the general electoral class were only able to fill 72 seats. This meant that individual votes carried very different weight. The curiae existed until the electoral reform of 1907. This reform established the principle of equal suffrage in Austria – although initially only for men; women did not obtain the right to vote until 1918.
The legislative period of the National Council generally lasts five years (Art. 27 Federal Constitutional Law), ), calculated from the day of its first meeting. This means that it must be re-elected at least every five years. Within 30 days of the election, the Federal President must convene the new National Council.
However, the National Council can also be dissolved before the end of the five-year term by a resolution (of a corresponding federal law) of the National Council itself, by dissolution by the Federal President, or after a referendum in which the citizens do not approve the removal of the head of state. (See also FAQ "How can the National Council be dissolved prematurely?")
The last National Council election took place on 29 September 2024. The constituent sitting of the newly-elected National Council took place on 24 October 2024. This first meeting marked the beginning of the new (XXVIII) legislative period. The legislative period of the XXVII National Council, elected on 29 September 2019, had lasted until that day.
Of the 27 legislative periods of the National Council to date, a total of five have lasted for their full duration. These were the XI, XIII and XVIII legislative periods, each lasting four years, and – following the 2007 electoral reform, which extended the legislative period – the XXIV and XXVII legislative periods, each lasting five years. The most common form of termination of a legislative period is premature termination by simple federal law. This has been the case in 19 legislative periods to date, most recently in the XXVIth legislative period (Federal Law Gazette I No. 52/2019).
Incidentally, the legislative period of the National Council lasts until the day on which the newly-elected National Council convenes, both after the expiry of the five years and in the event of early dissolution by resolution. The National Council therefore remains fully functional until the newly-elected National Council convenes.
Around 9.16 million people live in Austria (as of early 2024). Approximately 6.346 million people were eligible to vote in the 2024 National Council election.
You are eligible to vote in the National Council election if you
are an Austrian citizen (EU citizens from other countries are therefore not eligible to vote),
are at least 16 years old (in June 2007, Austria became the first country in Europe to introduce voting rights from the age of 16 for all elections),
have not been sentenced by an Austrian court to an unconditional prison term of more than five years (or more than one year for certain offences) and have not been disqualified from voting.
Your first vote – information for first-time voters / PDF, 447 KB (in German)
In elections, there are usually more parties on the ballot than actually enter the National Council.
The reason for this is that there is a 4% threshold in National Council elections: unless a party running for election wins at least one seat ("basic seat") in a regional constituency, it must obtain at least 4% of the valid votes cast throughout Austria in order to win seats. The rationale behind such thresholds is to ensure that only parties of significant numerical importance are represented in the National Council, thereby preventing excessive fragmentation of the party landscape.
This raises the question of how votes cast for parties that do not win any seats are counted.
In Austria, all valid votes cast are used to calculate the number of seats. The result of the National Council election is determined in three investigation procedures. There is one investigation procedure in the regional constituencies, one in the provincial constituencies and one at Federal level (proportional adjustment), in that order. Detailed information on the exact procedure of the three investigation procedures can be found on our website under "How are the seats calculated in the three investigation procedures": Elections to the National Council (in German)
At the beginning of the investigation procedures, the so-called election number is determined for each province by dividing the total number of valid votes cast in the provincial constituency by the number of seats to be allocated in that provincial constituency. The election number determined in this way is used in both the first and second investigation procedures.
Those parties that fail to reach the 4% threshold and do not receive a basic mandate have no chance of obtaining a mandate in the further proceedings. However, their votes do affect the calculation of the respective number of mandates in the first and second investigation procedures, as the mandates are allocated – as already mentioned – on the basis of the calculated election number and thus on the basis of all valid votes cast. The more eligible voters cast their votes, the higher the electoral quota becomes – this means that seats become "more expensive" in a sense, as the votes for each party are divided by the electoral quota to calculate how many seats each party can win in the first and second investigation procedures.
In the third, nationwide calculation, only the valid votes of those parties that are still in the running for the allocation of seats by achieving a basic mandate or exceeding the 4% threshold are taken into account when calculating the number of seats. The votes of the smaller parties that did not make it over this threshold are not taken into account in the third calculation. However, they do have an influence since, in the third investigation procedure, the number of seats to be allocated – 183, which remains unchanged from the first and second investigation procedures – is lower (reduced by the votes of the small parties). From this perspective, it is easier for parties to obtain a seat, as they need fewer votes than were required in the first and second preliminary investigations.
One could therefore say that the parties entering the National Council have "benefited" from the votes cast for the small parties, because they need fewer votes to obtain a mandate in the third investigation procedure, which makes the mandate "cheaper" for them (and the larger the share of votes cast for these small parties in the total number of valid votes, the cheaper it becomes). The parties entering the National Council all "benefit" proportionally, i.e. in proportion to the valid votes cast for them.
The National Council may be dissolved prematurely in the following cases:
Even in the event of early dissolution by legislative decree, the legislative term of the National Council lasts until the day on which the newly-elected National Council meets for the first time. In essence, the procedure is therefore no different from that which applies when the full five-year term is served. The National Council must be convened for the so-called constituent meeting within 30 days of the election.
The National Council remains fully functional until the newly elected National Council convenes and can continue its work, hold meetings, pass resolutions, discuss reports, etc. However, unfinished business – e.g. government bills that have not been passed – expires at the end of the legislative period. This does not apply to referendums, citizens' initiatives, reports by the Court of Auditors, federal accounts and reports by the Ombudsman.
The situation in which there is no National Council for a period of time would arise only if the Federal President dissolved the National Council on the recommendation of the Federal Government or if the population rejected the dismissal of the Federal President in a referendum initiated by the National Council and decided by the Federal Assembly. Neither of these cases has ever occurred in the Second Republic.
The number of seats to be allocated in the National Council is fixed in Section 1 of the National Council Election Regulations and amounts to 183. Until 1970, there were 165 seats – this number had been reduced in 1923 for reasons of economy (from 183 previously). Of course, a fixed number of seats is not a given. It is flexible, for example, in the German Bundestag, and in the Austrian Federal Council, the number of Members has fluctuated between 46 (1920 and 1934) and 65 (1982), which is related to the regulation of its composition in Art. 34 of the Federal Constitutional Law.
The regional constituencies vary in size. The number of seats allocated to a regional constituency ranges from 1 (East Tyrol) to 9 (Graz and surrounding area). The average is 3 to 6.
The result of the National Council election is determined in three preliminary investigations. There is one preliminary investigation in the regional constituencies, one in the provincial constituencies and one at Federal level (proportional adjustment), in that order.
The regional constituencies were introduced with the 1992 National Council Election Regulations in order to improve personal contact between voters and those elected.
All 183 seats to be allocated are therefore divided among the 39 regional constituencies. However, not all 183 seats are allocated at the regional constituency level. In order to obtain a seat, a candidate must receive a number of votes equal to the so-called electoral quota, which is calculated after the election and depends on the total number of valid votes cast in the provincial constituency. Even larger parties may not win any seats in some regional constituencies. In small regional constituencies, it can even happen that no party obtains enough votes to win a single seat. (In 2017, this was the case in constituencies 5A Salzburg City, 7A Innsbruck, 7E East Tyrol and 9B Vienna Inner West.)
This makes it clear that, with this distribution, many votes cannot be converted into seats. However, these votes are not lost, as they are used in the second calculation at the provincial level and in the third calculation at the Federal level. However, small parties are excluded from this. If a party has not obtained a seat in the first counting process, it must have obtained at least 4% of the valid votes nationwide in order to be considered in the further counting processes. This prevents excessive fragmentation of the political spectrum in the National Council.
The third investigation procedure, in which all votes are redistributed, also ensures that the principle of proportional representation is implemented as accurately as possible in the form of "nationwide proportional adjustment". It thus ensures that the distribution of seats is as closely aligned as possible with the election results. This compensates for distortions that can arise due to differences in the size of constituencies and the varying numbers of votes in the individual provinces.
Mathematically, the allocation of seats at the three levels works as follows:
1. Preliminary investigation (at regional constituency level)
First, the electoral quotient is determined for each province by dividing the total number of valid votes cast in the provincial constituency by the number of seats to be allocated in that constituency. The electoral quotient determined in this way (according to the so-called Hare system) is used in both the first and second calculation procedures.
In the first calculation procedure, each party initially receives as many seats in the regional constituency as the number of times the electoral quotient is contained in the vote number it has obtained.
A seat won in a regional constituency is also known as a basic seat. If a party wins such a seat, it can enter the National Council even if its strength nationwide remains below the required threshold of 4%. However, this has never been the case and is also extremely unlikely. Realistically, only larger parties have a chance of winning seats in regional constituencies.
2. Preliminary election (at the level of the provincial constituencies)
Only parties that have either obtained at least one seat in a regional constituency (basic seat) in the first preliminary election or have achieved at least 4% of the valid votes cast throughout the Federal territory may participate in the second preliminary election. All other parties are no longer allowed to participate in this preliminary election (or in the third) and have no chance of obtaining a seat.
Each party now receives as many seats as the number of votes in its total vote count in the provincial constituency. The seats already obtained in the first investigation procedure are deducted from this, and the remaining seats are allocated to candidates on the provincial party list.
3. Third calculation ("nationwide proportional adjustment")
Here, too, parties that have won at least one seat in a regional constituency or at least 4% of the valid votes nationwide take part. A further requirement is that the party has submitted a Federal election proposal (i.e. a list of candidates running at the Federal level) in good time.
In this procedure, all 183 seats are distributed using the electoral quotient, which is now calculated according to the D'Hondt method. To do this, the votes obtained by each party are written next to each other. These numbers are then divided by two and written below, then by three, four, five, etc. The numbers are then marked according to their size. The 183rd largest number is the electoral quotient for this calculation procedure. Each party then receives as many seats as the electoral quotient is contained in its party total. The seats allocated in the first and second calculation procedures must now be deducted again, and the remaining seats are allocated to candidates on the Federal election list.
Particularly small parties receive a large proportion of their seats in the third calculation procedure. (In the second calculation procedure, they usually receive seats only in large provinces).
In the 2017 National Council election, a total of 32 seats were allocated at the Federal level, 52 at the provincial level, and 99 in the regional constituencies.
In accordance with the three-stage investigation procedure, the parties have submitted regional party lists, provincial party lists, and a federal election proposal. In principle, the seats allocated to a party are assigned to the candidates in the order in which they appear on the list.
However, by casting preferential votes, voters have the opportunity to influence the order of the list and thus influence the composition of the National Council. In this way, a candidate can still obtain a seat despite being in a hopeless position on the list. Each voter can cast up to three preferential votes, one at each level.
This has not been the case very often so far. In the 1983 National Council election, Josef Cap, who was ranked 47th on the list (in constituency 9 Vienna) and had no chance of being elected, was the first to enter the National Council by means of preferential votes, which were then still called "election points".
In the 1992 National Council Election Regulations, the preferential voting system was expanded to strengthen the "personal element" in list voting. However, the list of Members of Parliament who have entered the National Council since 1994 on the basis of the preferential voting rules of the NRWO is short: Gerhart Bruckmann (ÖVP) in 1999, Franz Glaser (ÖVP) in 2002, Martina Diesner-Wais (ÖVP) in 2013, Christoph Stark (ÖVP) and Dominik Schrott (ÖVP) in 2017, Josef Hechenberger (ÖVP) in 2019 and Christoph Steiner (FPÖ) in 2024. All of these preferential vote mandates were achieved at the regional constituency level.
However, truly outstanding results in preferential votes are usually achieved by leading candidates who are already running in the top positions and who are certain to win a seat from the outset. This reflects the parties' election campaigns, which are focused on their respective leading candidates.
Sometimes, large numbers of preferential votes have also been cast for candidates who did not take up their National Council seats because, for example, they held senior positions in provincial politics. However, the possibility of casting preferential votes can still mobilise voters for the respective party.
The quotas of preferential votes required for reordering vary depending on the investigation procedure:
Despite the clear rules described above, the final composition of the National Council is usually not determined until a few days before the constituent meeting. Candidates can run on several lists – not in constituencies of equal rank, but on a vertical level (e.g. on a provincial list and on the Federal list). If a candidate is entitled to a seat on two lists, he or she must choose one. This decision must be communicated to the Federal Electoral Authority within 48 hours of the final announcement of the election results, which will determine the double election. Such decisions determine which of the two lists another candidate will move up from and thus obtain a seat that they would not otherwise have received. This allows a party to influence the final composition of the National Council until the very last moment.
After the National Council election, the Federal President usually entrusts the leading candidate of the party with the most seats with forming a government. If his or her party does not have an absolute majority, the candidate enters into coalition negotiations with other parties.
After the negotiations, the new Federal Chancellor proposes the individual Members of the Government to the Federal President. If the Federal President accepts the proposal, he or she appoints and swears in the new Federal Government.
It must then be presented to the National Council. On this occasion, the Federal Chancellor presents the government programme in a government statement.
After the election, it is customary for the old government to resign and be tasked by the Federal President with continuing to run the government until a new government is formed.
Only persons who are eligible for election to the National Council can be appointed as Members of the Federal Government. However, this does not mean that Members of the Federal Government must also be Members of the National Council. (On the contrary, it has been customary for several decades for Members of Parliament to relinquish their National Council mandate when taking up office as a Federal Minister or State Secretary.) It is also not necessary to have been on the list of a party standing for election in order to be appointed as a Member of the Government or State Secretary.
The Government consists of the Federal Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor and the Federal Ministers. State Secretaries are not Members of the Government. The number and responsibilities of the Federal Ministries may vary and are regulated by the Federal Ministries Act.