General elections were held in

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

on 3 February 2013 to elect the 25 members of the

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

. The

Progressive Citizens' Party The Progressive Citizens' Party in Liechtenstein (, FBP) is a Conservatism, conservative List of political parties in Liechtenstein, political party in Liechtenstein. The FBP is one of the two major party, major List of political parties in Liech ...

(FBP) won ten seats, with the Patriotic Union (VU) winning eight. The Independents (DU), which had been formed earlier in the year, won four seats. The

Free List A free list (or freelist) is a data structure used in a scheme for dynamic memory allocation. It operates by connecting unallocated regions of memory together in a linked list, using the first word of each unallocated region as a pointer to the ...

won three seats. It was the first time that four parties won seats in the Landtag. Voter turnout was 79.8%.

Background

The previous elections in 2009 were won by the Patriotic Union which managed to secure an absolute majority of the seats (13 out of 25). Despite winning a parliamentary majority, the Patriotic Union chose to form a coalition with the conservative

, which won 11 seats. The

won a single seat and became the opposition party. Prime Minister Klaus Tschuetscher's term in office was marked by an effort to move the country away from being a

tax haven A tax haven is a term, often used pejoratively, to describe a place with very low tax rates for Domicile (law), non-domiciled investors, even if the official rates may be higher. In some older definitions, a tax haven also offers Bank secrecy, ...

. Prior to the election Tschuetscher, who is a member of the Patriotic Union (VU) party, declared he would not be seeking the premiership for a second term.

Electoral system

The 25 members of the

were elected by open list proportional representation from two constituencies, Oberland with 15 seats and Unterland with 10 seats. Only parties and lists with more than 8% of the votes cast in each constituency were eligible to win seats in the Landtag. The constituency of Unterland consists of the municipalities of

Eschen Eschen (; High Alemannic: ''Escha'') is a municipality in the north of Liechtenstein. It covers an area of , and is one of the five communes in the Unterland electoral district. As of 2024, it has a population of 4,629 inhabitants. Etymolog ...

Gamprin Gamprin () is a municipality of Liechtenstein, on the Rhine on the border with the municipality of Sennwald, in Switzerland. It had 1,690 inhabitants in 2019. The municipality contains the village of Bendern and scattered hamlets and the Liechte ...

Mauren Mauren (; High Alemannic: ''Muura'') is a municipality in Liechtenstein that is situated in the north of the country. It has a population of 4,401. The Curta mechanical calculator was produced by Contina AG, in Mauren.Ruggell Ruggell (; dialectal: ''Ruggäll'') is a municipality of Liechtenstein. It is the northernmost and lowest elevated municipality. As of 2019, it has a population of 2,322. History Ruggell has an ancient history, with evidence of human activity pre ...

and

Schellenberg Schellenberg (; dialectal: ''Schällabärg'') is a municipality in the lowland area of Liechtenstein, on the banks of the Rhine. , it has a population of 1,107 and covers an area of History Early history The area was first settled by Celts, the ...

. The other constituency, Oberland, consists of the municipalities of

Balzers Balzers () is a municipality and village located in southern Liechtenstein. In 2024, the village had a population of 4,806. The main part of the village is situated along the east bank of the Rhine. History and culture Historically, the present- ...

Planken Planken (; dialectal: ''Planka'') is a municipality in Oberland, Liechtenstein. It has four exclaves, two enclaves and a population of 473. Thus by population it is the smallest municipality of Liechtenstein. History The Romanic population from ...

Schaan Schaan (; dialectal: ''Schaa'') is the largest Municipalities of Liechtenstein, municipality of Liechtenstein by population. It is located to the north of Vaduz, the capital, in the central part of the country. it has a population of 6,039, ma ...

Triesen Triesen (; dialectal: ''Tresa'') is the third largest municipality in Liechtenstein. It contains several historic churches dating from the fifteenth century. It also has a weaving mill from 1863 that is considered a historical monument. The popu ...

Triesenberg Triesenberg () is a Municipalities of Liechtenstein, municipality in Liechtenstein with a population of 2,636. Its area of makes it the largest municipality in Liechtenstein. The center of the municipality rests at an elevation of . History Tri ...

and

Vaduz Vaduz (; or ; High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' ...

Opinion polls

On 28 January 2013, the newspaper ''

Liechtensteiner Vaterland ''Liechtensteiner Vaterland'' (; lit. "Liechtenstein Fatherland") is the largest daily newspaper in Liechtenstein. Published by Vaduzer Medienhaus AG, it is the official newspaper of the Patriotic Union party. History In January 1936, Christi ...

'' published a poll in which they asked their readers, "Which party conducted the best election campaign?" About 10,000 people responded, and the results of the poll were as follows:

Candidates

Results

This was the first election in Liechtenstein in which four different political groups have won seats in the Landtag. The success of The Independents was considered by observers to be a result of

protest vote A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or "none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms ...

s against

austerity In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...

measures in the country. It was also postulated that greater diversity in the Landtag was a result of a decreased partisanship of voters. Patriotic Union members expressed their disappointment at the result. The VU suffered a large defeat, losing more than a third of its seats. The Progressive Citizens' Party lost one seat.

By electoral district

References

{{Liechtenstein elections

Elections in Liechtenstein

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Premiership of Adrian Hasler