In wet and cold weather, the mayoral runoff elections began on Sunday in 14 of Salzburg’s 119 municipalities. The duel in the state capital promises to be particularly exciting, where SPÖ deputy mayor Bernhard Auinger meets KPÖ local councilor Kay-Michael Dankl. In one community the result is already available and brought a surprise. The krone.at live ticker takes you through the exciting election day.
A runoff election for the mayor’s office is therefore necessary in the 14 affected municipalities, as no candidate was able to achieve an absolute majority in the first round of voting two weeks ago. The focus is on the duel in Salzburg city. Auinger and Dankl were 821 votes apart on March 10th. When it comes to big questions, there is little that separates the two. In Forstau the election has already been won: Gregor Schwarz (List Forstau) surprisingly prevailed against Martina Rettensteiner (ÖVP). In Flachgau there was no decision in the first round in Neumarkt, Schleedorf and Strobl. All three places are governed by the ÖVP. The duel “Huber against Huber” in St. Johann/Pongau promises to be explosive. The first polling station closed at 1:30 p.m. In Forstau, voting closed at 1:30 p.m., and you can do so in the state capital, Strobl, Saalfelden, Mühlbach, Bad Gastein, St. Johann and Oberalm cast their vote until 4 p.m. Over 15,000 voting cards in the city of Salzburg The question of voter turnout will also be exciting on Sunday in the city of Salzburg: The number of voting cards issued reached a new record of 15,203. It is unclear whether the narrow gap between the candidates and the open race indicates increased interest or whether many voters wanted to keep Palm Sunday free. According to reports, the crowds at individual polling stations were significantly lower than two weeks ago. Will the state capital become communist? If the KPÖ Plus candidate wins the runoff election, Austria’s fourth largest state capital after Graz would also be under communist rule. In terms of content, there is little that separates the two candidates from each other. Auinger, who is going into his third mayoral runoff election after 2017 and 2019, again aggressively advertised his experience in the city government in the remaining days.
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