An election poster of Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann of center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) is pasted onto a billboard in the city of Innsbruck on September 15, 2013.
Preliminary results from Austria™s parliamentary election indicate that the ruling coalition has garnered enough votes to form a new government.
Results of Sunday votes show that the incumbent Chancellor Werner Faymann, the leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO), has won 27.1 percent of the votes.
“Times were hard in the past four years. Because of the economic crisis lots of measures were necessary,” Faymann said late Sunday.
The center-right partners in the coalition government, the Austrian People’s Party (OVP), got 23.8 percent of the vote and maintained their position as the second-biggest political party in the Austrian parliament.
The OVP leader, Michael Spindelegger, said late Sunday that “everything is possible” and that he was “open to talks with anybody.” He has previously said that he wants to become the new Austrian chancellor, but political analysts predict that a renewal of the current Social Democrat-led government looks more likely.
As the results show the Centrist coalition parties (SPO and OVP) have won 50.9 percent of the vote, which gives the œgrand coalition” the chance to stay in power for another five-year term if they join. The coalition has dominated Austrian politics since 1945.
The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), headed by Heinz-Christian Strache, notched up 21.4 percent of the vote, emerging as the third political force in Austria.
The FPO has been critical of the 28-member European Union, and its main pitch was anti-immigration policies.
The Team Stronach party, which campaigned for “new values for Austria-Truth, Transparency, Fairness”, elected to parliament for the first time by wining 5.8 percent of the vote. The party is led by the founder of Austrian-Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna International Inc., Frank Stronach.
The left-leaning Greens, the liberal New Austria (NEOS), and the Alliance for Austria’s Future (BZOe) won 11.5 percent, 4.8 percent and 3.6 percent of the vote respectively.
More than six million Austrians were eligible to cast their ballots in the general elections. Voters chose among candidates vying for the 183 seats up for grabs in the lower house of parliament.
IA/HN/AS
Copyright: Press TV