ÖH election started with glitches

346,000 students at public and private universities, universities of applied sciences (FH) and universities of teacher education (PH) can vote on their representation in the elections to the Austrian Students’ Union (ÖH) until Thursday. Nine lists are candidates nationwide, in 2021 the participation was only 16 percent. The first election day was therefore characterized by election appeals. Due to server failures, voting was temporarily not possible.

The current ÖH leadership and the top candidates from almost all factions called on the students in front of the University of Vienna to go to the polls. Among other things, ÖH chairwoman Keya Baier (Greens and Alternative Students/GRAS) took up the cause of the recent valorization of study grants and the tuition fee exemption for Iranians and Ukrainians. Her deputy Sara Velic (Association of Socialist Students/VSStÖ) referred to the Corona hardship fund of the ÖH. The government has also been reminded several times what the reality of life is like for students. “A good education and a good life can only exist with a strong ÖH.”

Technical problems

However, due to server failures, voting was not possible at all locations on Tuesday, a report by the APA news magazine “profil” (online edition) was confirmed by the ÖH federal representation. According to an ÖH spokesman, most of the locations were affected by technical problems between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., but to a very different extent, from a few minutes to longer-lasting disruptions. The faults have now been rectified. Voting is done with ordinary ballot papers – but the electronic voting system has to be used to determine who is allowed to vote where.

Can a minimum time be observed at polling stations?

Depending on the number of students, the universities must keep the polling stations open for a certain minimum time over the three election days. If this period is not reached due to server failures, the opening times of the polling stations must be extended accordingly. The respective election commissions decide on how many or on which day this happens.

For the first time this year, the ÖH itself is primarily responsible for the technical implementation of the elections. Even with the new electronic election administration system from a private provider, which was used for the first time this year at the request of the ÖH, there were initially problems: the voters’ register was not complete at the student representation level. According to the ÖH, however, it was possible to fix this within a few days.

Participation in the ÖH elections was usually around 25 percent in the last ballot. In 2021 it fell to almost 16 percent – at that time, however, due to the corona pandemic, there were hardly any courses at the universities, where the polling stations are located. The postal vote, which was used more frequently, could not make up for this.

Election cards must be received by Wednesday

This year, students can again vote by absentee ballot. A total of almost 6,000 applications were made this year (2021: 21,000, 2019: 8,800). These must be received by the electoral commission by 6:00 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday. The last polling stations at the universities close on Thursday afternoon, with the final result expected late Thursday evening.

The students can vote on three levels: their student representatives, their university representatives and the federal representation (BV), the Austrian student parliament. In the federal representation, which has 55 mandates, the VSStÖ has 14 mandates, the GRAS and the ÖVP-affiliated AktionsGemeinschaft (AG) each twelve. The young liberal students (JUNOS) hold six mandates, and the student council lists (FLÖ) have the same number. Two competing communist student associations (KSV LiLi and KSV Communist Youth/KJÖ) each have two mandates, with the Ring of Freedom Students (RFS) having the last seat. In addition to these eight factions, the new list “Who the F * uck is Herbert” is also on the ballot paper nationwide. The ÖH leadership form a coalition of VSStÖ, GRAS and FLÖ.