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Austria to elect parliament

The Social-Democratic Party of Austria remains the forerunner in the course of the whole election campaign

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

VIENNA, September 29 (Itar-Tass) - Elections in the National Council lower house of parliament will be held in Austria on Sunday. The parties that will win the elections will form a ruling coalition and a new government.

Nine parties are running for votes of 6.4 million Austrian voters. However, according to sociological surveys, which were conducted a few days before the elections, only seven political parties have real chances to overcome a four-percent election hurdle to be elected in a 183-seat lower house of Austrian parliament.

The Social-Democratic Party of Austria remains the forerunner in the course of the whole election campaign. The party also won at the previous elections in 2008. Leader of the party, Austrian Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann again has all chances to take the office of the head of the country’s Cabinet.

The sociologists forecast that the Austrian People’s Party, which is a partner of the Social-Democratic Party in the current coalition, will be a runner-up in the elections. With the highest degree of probability the Social Democrats and the Austrian People’s Party will succeed to gain more than 50 percent of votes, which are needed to get the mandate from the president to form a new government.

With these election results the following parties represented in the current National Council - the Austrian Party of Freedom, The Greens, the Team Stronach and the Alliance For the Future of Austria, the chances of which to get four percent of votes are slim, will remain in opposition. The intrigue is possible only if the Alliance For the Future of Austria and the New Austria Party will be elected in the parliament. The votes cast for these parties will not be divided between other parties that will play in the hands of the current coalition of the Social-Democratic Party and the Austrian People’s Party that is about to gain approximately 50 percent of votes. Then the Social-Democrats and the People’s Party will have to search for a third partner to form a majority that, on the one hand, will bring new ideas in the government, but, on the other hand, will make it less stable.

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