Challenging the Election of Johanna Mikl-Leitner as Governor of Lower Austria: Constitutional Lawyer Karl Stöger’s Analysis and Opinions

2023-04-18 04:24:13

Constitutional lawyer Karl Stöger believes there are good chances of contesting the election of Johanna Mikl-Leitner as governor of Lower Austria.

Constitutional lawyer Karl Stöger from the University of Vienna suspects that a possible challenge to the election of Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) as Lower Austrian governor would have good chances in court. Because: It is legally unclear whether the valid votes would actually have been sufficient. “That would be a question that the Constitutional Court would have to clarify,” says Stöger im „Standard“ quoted.

The background: During the election campaign, the FPÖ had always emphasized that it did not want to elect Mikl-Leitner as state governor. When negotiations were taking place following the elections regarding a joint working agreement, the Freedom Party announced that they would not break their election promises, but still wanted to participate in government. The chosen blue way out of this situation: the vote was invalid in order to enable Mikl-Leitner to be provincial governor in the constitutive meeting on March 23rd.

The result: the former interior minister received 24 out of 41 valid votes. There are a total of 56 members of parliament in the Lower Austrian state parliament. FPÖ state party leader Udo Landbauer received 25 out of 44 valid votes as deputy state governor.

Two readings

“The state constitution stipulates that empty ballot papers are ‘disregarded’ in the election of state councillors. This arrangement does not apply to the election of the state governor and her deputies,” explained Stöger in the “Standard” and to the ORF Lower Austria. If the constitution excludes invalid ballot papers for state councillors, this might also be extended to the election of higher-ranking members of the government, because nothing further is specified there, he argues.

The second reading is: Because the constitution only explicitly provides for this regulation for the provincial councils, it does not apply to the provincial governor for that very reason. It is regarding how all the provisions interact – and that is not clear in the specific case.

State President defends procedure

“The election was prepared and carried out by me both legally and organizationally in accordance with the provisions of our state constitution and state parliament rules of procedure,” countered Lower Austria’s state parliament president Karl Wilfing (ÖVP) in a broadcast. “The election procedure was prepared and discussed by mutual consent in the presidential conference with the representatives of the parties.” There was neither organizational nor legal criticism of the election procedure.

One thing is certain: According to Stöger, a complaint to the Constitutional Court would have to bring in at least one tenth, i.e. six members, of the state parliament. The period is four weeks and expires in the middle of the week.

(Red.)

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