2023-05-11 19:47:00
Technology turbulence accompanied the ÖH election to the end. Voter turnout has increased minimally and comes to 21.2 percent. The first results from the universities only arrived around 9 p.m. The AG cheers at the University of Linz, the VSStÖ overtakes the grass at the University of Salzburg – which clearly loses there.
It started on Tuesday with server failures and long waiting times, on the third and last day of the election there were still long queues at individual locations, and the problems with data analysis continued in the evening. The ÖH election has been won – and not without problems.
Nine factions fought nationwide for the 55 mandates in the ÖH federal representation, the Austria-wide student parliament. According to the election commission, voter turnout on Thursday evening was 21.2 percent. This is significantly higher than in 2021, when less than 16 percent went to vote. However, the aim of the ÖH election campaign to increase participation to well over 25 percent was clearly missed.
This might sometimes also be due to the ongoing problems with the handling of the election. The private company commissioned by the ÖH for the first time had problems with the IT processing of the complex election, which takes place at three levels (federal, university and student representatives). There were also problems with voting itself, which led to longer waiting times up to the third day, for example at the Vienna University of Economics and the Vienna Medical University. And there were also problems with the evaluation of the votes. The first results were a long time coming on Thursday evening.
AG celebrates in Linz, VSStÖ in Salzburg
In the polling center of the federal ÖH, the supporters of the nationwide parliamentary group waited a long time for the election results, which gradually arrived from the larger universities around 10:30 p.m. At the University of Linz, the action group celebrated an increase of almost three percentage points (38.8 percent), the VSStÖ overtook the Gras at the University of Salzburg (28.3). These only come to 22.4 percent. In 2021, the previous ÖH federal chairwoman, Keya Baier, got 33.3 percent as the grass top candidate.
Around 8 p.m., Minister of Science Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) also met at the Vienna ÖH headquarters, who had called on the students to exercise their right to vote. The general secretary of the FH conference, Kurt Koleznik, also came, as did the green science spokeswoman, Eva Blimlinger, the green health spokesman, Ralph Schallmeiner, and SPÖ women’s spokeswoman Eva-Maria Holzleitner. The fact that participation had increased was a reason for Polaschek and the ÖH officials to celebrate. “I’m very happy,” he said, “today is a good day to celebrate. Have a good time, have a party”.
The increased participation was also a reason to celebrate for the ÖH executive from VSStÖ, Gras and FLÖ. That was “incredibly gratifying,” said Keya Baier (grass).
Vibrators “sold like hotcakes”
An ÖH election, which was otherwise quite poor in excitement, had a headline ready late on Thursday: The “Krone” reported on a vibrator distribution campaign at the expense of tax money. The green students (grass) distributed these to students as an election gift, some were also raffled, as top candidate Sarah Rossmann told the “Presse” at the election party in the ÖH headquarters in Vienna’s Taubstummengasse on Thursday evening. They were “gone away like hot cakes”.
The background to the campaign is raising awareness of sexuality, which is still taboo at universities. Universities are there to break taboos.
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