The 2003 Tyrolean state election was held on 28 September 2003 to elect the members of the Landtag of Tyrol. The

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is curr ...

(ÖVP) regained the absolute majority it had lost in 1999, winning just under 50% of votes cast. The

Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

(SPÖ) made gains, and

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra *Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina *Greens (Greece) *Greens of Montenegro * Greens of Serbia * Gree ...

achieved one of their best election results nationwide up to this point, winning 15.6% and five seats. This was enabled by a collapse in support for the

Freedom Party of Austria The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Au ...

(FPÖ), which lost more than half its vote share and five of its seven seats. The election was marked by a major decline in participation due to the repeal of

compulsory voting Compulsory voting, also called mandatory voting, is the requirement in some countries that eligible citizens register and vote in elections. Penalties might be imposed on those who fail to do so without a valid reason. According to the CIA World ...

; turnout fell from 81% to 61%. As a result, only the Greens actually gained votes compared to 1999, recording an increase of 17,000. By contrast, the ÖVP lost 19,000 votes, the SPÖ 500, and the FPÖ 45,000. Despite regaining its majority, the ÖVP under

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Herwig van Staa Herwig van Staa (born 10 June 1942) was the governor of Tyrol from 2002 to 2008. Van Staa was born in Linz, Upper Austria. His father, who came from the Rhine area, worked as a technician in the steelworks in Linz and died in a sick bay in 1943 ...

chose to renew the incumbent coalition with the SPÖ.

Background

In the 1999 election, the ÖVP narrowly lost its absolute majority for the first time in history; the SPÖ and FPÖ each made gains, while the Greens suffered losses. The ÖVP formed a coalition with the SPÖ. In 2002, Governor

Wendelin Weingartner Wendelin Weingartner (born 7 February 1937 in Innsbruck) is an Austrian politician who served as the Governor of Tyrol from 1993 to 2002. He studied law at the University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Univers ...

his pending retirement. He was replaced by Innsbruck mayor Herwig van Staa in October.

Electoral system

The 36 seats of the Landtag of Tyrol are elected via

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, p ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

in a two-step process. The seats are distributed between nine multi-member constituencies, corresponding to the

districts of Tyrol Tyrol (; german: Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a state (''Land'') in western Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical Princely County of Tyrol. It is a constituent part of the present-day Euroregion Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino ...

. For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 5 percent state-wide electoral threshold. Seats are distributed in constituencies according to the

Hare quota The Hare quota (also known as the simple quota) is a formula used under some forms of proportional representation. In these voting systems the quota is the number of votes that guarantees a candidate, or a party in some cases, captures a seat. Th ...

, with any remaining seats allocated using the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highe ...

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. In addition to the parties already represented in the Landtag, one party collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot. *

Communist Party of Austria The Communist Party of Austria (german: Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ) is a communist party in Austria. Established in 1918 as the Communist Party of German-Austria (KPDÖ), it is one of the world's oldest communist parties. The KPÖ ...

(''KPÖ'') – on the ballot only in Innsbruck City,

Innsbruck-Land The Bezirk Innsbruck-Land is an administrative district (''Bezirk'') in Tyrol, Austria. It encloses the Statutarstadt Innsbruck, and borders Bavaria (Germany) in the north, the district Schwaz in the east, South Tyrol in Italy to the south, and t ...

, and

Kufstein Kufstein (; Central Bavarian: ''Kufstoa'') is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the administrative seat of Kufstein District. With a population of about 19,600 it is the second largest Tyrolean town after the state capital Innsbruck. The gr ...

Results

Results by constituency

References

{{Austrian local elections Tyrolean state election State elections in Austria Tyrolean state election Tyrol (state)