The election date was controversial on the day that Mayor Klaus Luger (SP) announced his resignation. Since Monday, Vice Mayor Karin Hörzing has been in charge of the office, but she declined to make an immediate decision on the election date.
The fronts were clearly drawn: ÖVP, FPÖ, Greens and small parties pushed for an election date in December, SP mayoral candidate Dietmar Prammer was the only one to prefer January.
- Here you can read the Reactions of the other parties.
“I didn’t make the decision lightly”
Hörzing has now made her decision: the mayoral election will take place on January 12th, with the run-off election expected to take place on January 26th. “I did not make this decision lightly,” Hörzing said in a press release. She made it after discussions with representatives of civil society, experts on electoral law and implementation, and after careful consideration. There were several reasons why she decided not to give in to the request of the other parties to vote on December 8th.
Hörzing does not want to burden election workers and their families with having to work on two Advent Sundays since Advent is a family time. In total, around 5,000 families would be affected – from the election officials to the election supervisors.
Hörzing does not believe in the “fantasies” of some candidates to hold the run-off election after just one week, i.e. on December 15th. “That would probably largely exclude the growing number of postal voters. Both the processing of the application and the delivery of voting cards are almost unthinkable within these few days in the run-up to Christmas,” she argues.
Members of the city council have already been informed
For these reasons, experts (such as those from the Ministry of the Interior) also advised against holding a new mayoral election in December. Hörzing also stressed that the local election regulations do not stipulate that the first possible day must be used for the election, but rather give the people who make the decisions in the municipalities some leeway.
With the election date on January 12, there are 133 days between the mayor’s resignation and election day. The time period in Linz therefore does not differ significantly from comparable elections in Upper Austria.
The members of the city government were informed about the election date by Hörzing at an informal meeting today, Wednesday.
No New Year’s reception
As of today, it is also certain that there will be no New Year’s reception in the Old Town Hall in 2025. Hörzing has cancelled it and stopped the preparatory work.
