# 2003 Lower Austrian state election

The 2003 Lower Austrian state election was held on 30 March 2003 to elect the members of the Landtag of Lower Austria.
The election was won by the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), who won an absolute majority in the Landtag for the first time since 1988. They achieved a strong swing of 8.4 percentage points. The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and The Greens also made gains; this was enabled by the collapse of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). The FPÖ lost almost three-quarters of its vote share and only narrowly passed the 4% electoral threshold, falling from nine seats to just two.

## Background

The Lower Austrian constitution mandates 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 is a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualify for at least one state councillor. After the 1998 election, the ÖVP had five councillors, the SPÖ three, and the FPÖ one.

## Electoral system

The 56 seats of the Landtag of Lower Austria are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between twenty-one 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 4 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 | Name | Name | Ideology | Leader | 1998 result | 1998 result | 1998 result |
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Leader | Votes (%) | Seats | Councillors |
| | ÖVP | Austrian People's Party Österreichische Volkspartei | Christian democracy | Erwin Pröll | 44.9% | 27 / 56 | 5 / 9 |
| | SPÖ | Social Democratic Party of Austria Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs | Social democracy | Heidemaria Onodi | 30.4% | 18 / 56 | 3 / 9 |
| | FPÖ | Freedom Party of Austria Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs | Right-wing populism Euroscepticism | ? | 16.1% | 9 / 56 | 1 / 9 |
| | GRÜNE | The Greens – The Green Alternative Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative | Green politics | ? | 4.5% | 2 / 56 |
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, three parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.
* Green independent Austria – List of EU Opposition Gabriela Wladyka (GRÜNÖ)
* Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ)
* Christian Voter Community (CWG)

## Results

| | Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 491,065 | 53.29 | +8.42 | 31 | +4 | 6 | +1 |
| | Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 309,199 | 33.55 | +3.16 | 19 | +1 | 3 | ±0 |
| | The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) | 66,543 | 7.22 | +2.73 | 4 | +2 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 41,391 | 4.49 | –11.59 | 2 | –7 | 0 | –1 |
| | Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) | 7,074 | 0.77 | +0.13 | 0 | ±0 | 0 | ±0 |
| | Green independent Austria (GRÜNÖ) | 6,013 | 0.65 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New |
| | Christian Voter Community (CWG) | 187 | 0.02 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 16,015 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | Total | 937,487 | 100 | – | 56 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,305,950 | 71.79 | –0.16 | – | – | – | – |
| Source: Lower Austrian Government |||||||||
Popular vote
ÖVP
53.29%
SPÖ
33.55%
GRÜNE
7.22%
FPÖ
4.49%
Other
1.44% :
Landtag seats
ÖVP
55.36%
SPÖ
33.93%
GRÜNE
7.14%
FPÖ
3.57% :

### Results by constituency

| Constituency | ÖVP | ÖVP | SPÖ | SPÖ | Grüne | Grüne | FPÖ | FPÖ | Others | Total seats | Turnout |
| Constituency | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | S | % | Total seats | Turnout |
| Amstetten | 58.4 | 3 | 30.3 | 1 | 6.5 | | 3.6 | | 1.2 | 4 | 76.7 |
| Baden | 45.7 | 2 | 39.5 | 1 | 8.1 | | 5.0 | | 1.6 | 3 | 66.4 |
| Bruck an der Leitha | 48.4 | | 39.7 | | 5.9 | | 4.8 | | 1.2 | 0 | 71.1 |
| Gänserndorf | 48.4 | 1 | 39.6 | 1 | 6.0 | | 4.6 | | 1.5 | 2 | 69.7 |
| Gmünd | 48.2 | | 42.1 | | 3.8 | | 4.5 | | 1.3 | 0 | 75.6 |
| Hollabrunn | 61.1 | 1 | 27.9 | | 5.3 | | 4.6 | | 1.1 | 1 | 74.3 |
| Horn | 67.3 | 1 | 22.6 | | 5.2 | | 4.0 | | 0.9 | 1 | 76.6 |
| Korneuburg | 54.7 | 1 | 30.1 | | 9.0 | | 4.8 | | 1.4 | 1 | 68.8 |
| Krems an der Donau | 59.2 | 2 | 27.6 | | 7.1 | | 4.6 | | 1.6 | 2 | 74.6 |
| Lilienfeld | 48.4 | | 41.2 | | 4.6 | | 4.2 | | 1.6 | 0 | 78.0 |
| Melk | 55.6 | 1 | 33.1 | 1 | 5.2 | | 4.8 | | 1.3 | 2 | 77.8 |
| Mistelbach | 60.3 | 2 | 27.8 | | 6.3 | | 4.3 | | 1.3 | 2 | 74.8 |
| Mödling | 50.0 | 2 | 28.7 | 1 | 14.3 | | 5.0 | | 2.0 | 3 | 62.9 |
| Neunkirchen | 47.8 | 1 | 41.0 | 1 | 6.3 | | 3.8 | | 1.2 | 2 | 72.7 |
| Sankt Pölten | 48.4 | 2 | 37.9 | 2 | 7.6 | | 4.3 | | 1.7 | 4 | 74.2 |
| Scheibbs | 62.6 | 1 | 26.8 | | 5.8 | | 3.5 | | 1.3 | 1 | 78.5 |
| Tulln | 57.8 | 1 | 28.9 | | 7.3 | | 4.5 | | 1.5 | 1 | 74.4 |
| Waidhofen an der Thaya | 61.5 | | 26.1 | | 4.9 | | 6.1 | | 1.4 | 0 | 74.9 |
| Wiener Neustadt | 48.6 | 2 | 40.0 | 1 | 6.1 | | 3.8 | | 1.4 | 3 | 69.3 |
| Vienna Surrounds | 44.0 | 1 | 36.9 | 1 | 12.0 | | 5.4 | | 1.87 | 2 | 61.9 |
| Zwettl | 69.0 | 1 | 20.1 | | 5.1 | | 4.7 | | 1.1 | 1 | 78.1 |
| Remaining seats | | 6 | | 9 | | 4 | | 2 | | 21 | |
| Total | 53.3 | 31 | 33.6 | 19 | 7.2 | 4 | 4.5 | 2 | 1.4 | 56 | 71.8 |
| Source: Lower Austrian Government ||||||||||||