2004 Carinthian state election

2004 Carinthian state election

7 March 2004
All 36 seats in the Landtag of Carinthia 19 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	334,431 (78.6%) 1.9%
First party Second party   Leader Jörg Haider Peter Ambrozy Party FPÖ SPÖ Last election 16 seats, 42.1% 12 seats, 32.9% Seats won 16 14 Seat change 0 2 Popular vote 139,479 126,325 Percentage 42.4% 38.4% Swing 0.4% 5.6%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Elisabeth Scheucher Rolf Holub Party ÖVP Greens Last election 8 seats, 20.7% 0 seats, 3.9% Seats won 4 2 Seat change 4 2 Popular vote 38,256 22,053 Percentage 11.6% 6.7% Swing 9.1% 2.8%
Governor before election Jörg Haider FPÖ Elected Governor Jörg Haider FPÖ

The 2004 Carinthian state election was held on 7 March 2004 to elect the members of the Landtag of Carinthia.

The election was a victory for the first-term Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) government under Jörg Haider, which repeated its strong performance from the previous election. This came despite difficulties on the federal level and recent defeats in other state elections, as well as a strong challenge from the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) lost almost half its voteshare, while The Greens won seats for the first time.

Background

Prior to amendments made in 2017, the Carinthian constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, German: Landesräten) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz. As such, the government was a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualified for at least one state councillor.

In the 1999 state election, the FPÖ became the largest party in a state legislature for the first time in history, winning 42% of votes cast. FPÖ leader Jörg Haider became Governor.

Electoral system

The 36 seats of the Landtag of Carinthia are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between four 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 5 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	1999 result
					Votes (%)	Seats	Councillors
	FPÖ	Freedom Party of Austria Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs	Right-wing populism Euroscepticism	Jörg Haider	42.1%	16 / 36	3 / 7
	SPÖ	Social Democratic Party of Austria Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs	Social democracy	Peter Ambrozy	32.9%	12 / 36	3 / 7
	ÖVP	Austrian People's Party Österreichische Volkspartei	Christian democracy	Elisabeth Scheucher	20.7%	8 / 36	1 / 7

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

• The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE)
• Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ)
• SAU Party (SAU)

Results

Party		Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Coun.	+/−
	Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ)	139,479	42.43	+0.37	16	±0	3	±0
	Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ)	126,325	38.43	+5.57	14	+2	3	±0
	Austrian People's Party (ÖVP)	38,256	11.64	–9.10	4	–4	1	±0
	The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE)	22,053	6.71	+2.78	2	+2	0	±0
	Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ)	1,951	0.59	+0.18	0	±0	0	±0
	SAU Party (SAU)	635	0.19	New	0	New	0	New
Invalid/blank votes		5,732	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total		334,431	100	–	36	0	7	0
Registered voters/turnout		425,304	78.63	–1.87	–	–	–	–
Source: Carinthian Government

Popular vote FPÖ   42.42% SPÖ   38.43% ÖVP   11.64% GRÜNE   6.71% Other   0.78%

Landtag seats FPÖ   44.44% SPÖ   38.89% ÖVP   11.11% GRÜNE   5.56%

Results by constituency

Constituency	FPÖ		SPÖ		ÖVP		Grüne		Others	Total seats	Turnout
	%	S	%	S	%	S	%	S	%
Klagenfurt	41.7	4	35.8	3	10.7	1	11.1	1	0.7	9	76.9
Carinthia East	42.6	4	39.4	4	12.6	1	4.8		0.6	9	80.2
Villach	40.0	3	43.9	3	8.3		6.2		1.5	6	77.9
Carinthia West	45.1	4	35.1	3	14.5	1	4.8		0.5	8	79.4
Remaining seats		1		1		1		1		4
Total	42.4	16	38.4	14	11.6	4	6.7	2	0.8	36	78.6
Source: Carinthian Government