By KUNA
Vienna : Austria’s conservative People’s Party succeeded in winning majority of votes for parliamentary seats in Lower Austria but the Communist Party of Austria suffered a resounding defeat.
According to the electoral results, announced late on Sunday, the biggest winner was the far-right extremist Freedom Party of Austria which took over the third place instead of the Greens party.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for the Future of Austria garnered a small number of votes, 0.72 percent, insufficient to enter the parliament.
According to the final results reported by the Austrian TV, the People’s Party got 54.29 percent of the votes, 0.99 percent more than 2003’s 53.3 percent, thus it will get 31 seats in the parliament.
The Communist Party of Austria came next with 25.64 percent, suffering from a major setback compared with the 33.6 percent it got five years ago. The party lost four seats and will only occupy 15.
The votes of the Freedom Party of Austria jumped from 4.5 percent to 10.54 percent and its seats increased from two to six, while the Greens party’s votes decreased from 7.2 to 6.81 percent, this it would retain its four seats.
The Austrian TV said that Erwin Proell of the People’s Party will remain Lower Austria’s Governor.
The Communist Party described the elections’ results as painful, while the People’s Party stressed that there will not be early elections due to the conflict between the representatives of the communists and the People’s Party in the government.
Lower Austria is the country’s largest state in size and the second largest in population after the capital Vienna.
It neighbors Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and the Austrian states of Upper Austria, Styria and Burgenland.