| Election Name: | 2010 Styrian state election |
| Country: | Styria |
| Flag Year: | state |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Previous Election: | 2005 Styrian state election |
| Previous Year: | 2005 |
| Next Election: | 2015 Styrian state election |
| Next Year: | 2015 |
| Election Date: | 26 September 2010 |
| Seats For Election: | All 56 seats in the Landtag of Styria All 9 seats in the state government |
| Turnout: | 672,379 (69.5%) 6.6% |
| Leader1: | Franz Voves |
| Party1: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
| Last Election1: | 25 seats, 41.7% |
| Seats1: | 23 |
| Seat Change1: | 2 |
| Popular Vote1: | 253,878 |
| Percentage1: | 38.3% |
| Swing1: | 3.4% |
| Leader2: | Hermann Schützenhöfer |
| Party2: | Austrian People's Party |
| Last Election2: | 24 seats, 38.7% |
| Popular Vote2: | 246,755 |
| Seats2: | 22 |
| Seat Change2: | 2 |
| Percentage2: | 37.2% |
| Swing2: | 1.5% |
| Leader3: | Gerhard Kurzmann |
| Party3: | Freedom Party of Austria |
| Last Election3: | 0 seats, 4.6% |
| Seats3: | 6 |
| Seat Change3: | 6 |
| Popular Vote3: | 70,708 |
| Percentage3: | 10.7% |
| Swing3: | 6.1% |
| Leader4: | Werner Kogler |
| Party4: | The Greens – The Green Alternative |
| Last Election4: | 3 seats, 4.7% |
| Seats4: | 3 |
| Seat Change4: | 0 |
| Popular Vote4: | 36,834 |
| Percentage4: | 5.6% |
| Swing4: | 0.8% |
| Leader5: | Claudia Klimt-Weithaler |
| Party5: | Communist Party of Austria |
| Last Election5: | 4 seats, 6.3% |
| Seats5: | 2 |
| Seat Change5: | 2 |
| Popular Vote5: | 29,231 |
| Percentage5: | 4.4% |
| Swing5: | 1.9% |
| Governor | |
| Before Election: | Franz Voves |
| Before Party: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
| After Election: | Franz Voves |
| After Party: | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
The 2010 Styrian state election was held on 26 September 2010 to elect the members of the Landtag of Styria.
The Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) narrowly retained first place against the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), with both parties taking losses. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) was the main winner of the election, returning to the Landtag after falling out five years earlier; it won 10.7% of the vote and six seats, taking two each from the SPÖ, ÖVP, and Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ). Governor Franz Voves of the SPÖ was subsequently elected to a second term by the Landtag.[1]
Prior to amendments made in 2011, the Styrian constitution mandated 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 was a perpetual coalition of all parties that qualified for at least one state councillor.
The 2005 election brought significant changes in Styrian politics. The SPÖ won a narrow victory over the ÖVP, becoming the largest party in the Landtag for the first time since 1953; Franz Voves became the first SPÖ governor of Styria. The FPÖ also lost all its seats for the first time ever. The KPÖ returned to the Landtag after a 35-year absence, placing third with 6.3% of votes and four seats, on the back of a popular campaign and recent success in Graz. After the election, the SPÖ had five state councillors and the ÖVP four.
The 56 seats of the Landtag of Styria were elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process. 48 of the seats were distributed between four multi-member constituencies. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must win at least one seat in a constituency directly. Seats were distributed in constituencies according to the Hare quota, with eight leveling 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.[2]
| Name | Ideology | Leader | 2005 result | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | Councillors | |||||
| SPÖ | Social Democratic Party of Austria | Social democracy | Franz Voves | 41.7% | |||
| ÖVP | Austrian People's Party | Christian democracy | Hermann Schützenhöfer | 38.7% | |||
| KPÖ | Communist Party of Austria | Communism | Claudia Klimt-Weithaler | 6.3% | |||
| GRÜNE | The Greens – The Green Alternative | Green politics | Werner Kogler | 4.7% | |||
In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, four parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot:
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | SPÖ | ÖVP | KPÖ | Grüne | FPÖ | BZÖ | Others | Lead | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 state election | data-sort-value="2010-09-26" | 26 September 2010 | – | 38.3 | 37.2 | 4.4 | 5.6 | 10.7 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 1.1 | |
| OGM/Kurier | data-sort-value="2010-09-18" | 18 Sep 2010 | ? | 36.5 | 36.5 | 4.5 | 6.5 | 11.5 | 2.5 | 2.0 | data-sort-value="0" | Tie |
| Humaninstitut | data-sort-value="2010-09-18" | 11–18 Sep 2010 | 850 | 39 | 36 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 3 | |
| Gallup | data-sort-value="2010-09-18" | 18 Sep 2010 | ? | 38 | 37 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| IMAS | data-sort-value="2010-09-15" | 15 Sep 2010 | 906 | 39 | 38 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| Gallup | data-sort-value="2010-09-10" | 10 Sep 2010 | ? | 37 | 37 | 4 | 6 | 10 | – | 6 | data-sort-value="0" | Tie |
| GMK | data-sort-value="2010-09-10" | 10 Sep 2010 | ? | 39 | 38 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Market | data-sort-value="2010-09-02" | 2 Sep 2010 | ? | 38 | 36 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| Market | data-sort-value="2010-08-29" | 29 Aug 2010 | 400 | 39 | 37 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
| Gallup | data-sort-value="2010-08-15" | 15 Aug 2010 | 400 | 38 | 37 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |
| 2005 state election | data-sort-value="2005-10-02" | 2 October 2005 | – | 41.7 | 38.7 | 6.3 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 3.0 |
| align=center colspan=9 | |||||||||
| Party | Votes | % | +/− | Seats | +/− | +/− | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor= | Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) | 253,878 | 38.26 | –3.41 | 23 | –2 | 4 | –1 | |
| bgcolor= | Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) | 246,755 | 37.19 | –1.47 | 22 | –2 | 4 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) | 70,708 | 10.66 | +6.10 | 6 | +6 | 1 | +1 | |
| bgcolor= | The Greens – The Green Alternative (GRÜNE) | 36,834 | 5.55 | +0.81 | 3 | ±0 | 0 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) | 29,231 | 4.41 | –1.93 | 2 | –2 | 0 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) | 19,775 | 2.98 | +1.26 | 0 | ±0 | 0 | ±0 | |
| bgcolor= | Christian Party of Austria (CPÖ) | 4,762 | 0.72 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | |
| Party for the Environment, People and Labour (PUMA) | 1,581 | 0.24 | New | 0 | New | 0 | New | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 8,855 | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| Total | 672,279 | 100 | – | 56 | 0 | 9 | 0 | ||
| align=left colspan=2 | Registered voters/turnout | 966,900 | 69.54 | –6.64 | – | – | – | – | |
| align=left colspan=9 | Source: Styrian Government | ||||||||
| Constituency | SPÖ | ÖVP | FPÖ | Grüne | KPÖ | Others | Total seats | Turnout | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | class=unsortable | class=unsortable | % | |||||
| District 1 | 34.2 | 6 | 31.2 | 5 | 12.3 | 2 | 10.3 | 1 | 7.6 | 1 | 4.4 | 15 | 64.4 | ||||||||
| District 2 | 39.0 | 4 | 40.4 | 4 | 9.9 | 1 | 3.6 | 2.4 | 4.7 | 9 | 70.4 | ||||||||||
| District 3 | 30.2 | 3 | 50.3 | 6 | 10.0 | 1 | 4.0 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 10 | 74.5 | ||||||||||
| District 4 | 47.6 | 8 | 31.5 | 5 | 10.0 | 1 | 3.3 | 4.2 | 3.5 | 14 | 71.0 | ||||||||||
| State seats | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |||||||||||||||
| Total | 38.3 | 23 | 37.2 | 22 | 10.7 | 6 | 5.6 | 3 | 4.4 | 2 | 4.0 | 56 | 69.5 | ||||||||
| Source: Styrian Government | |||||||||||||||||||||