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General elections were held in Liechtenstein on 3 February 2013, using a proportional representation system. Four parties contested the elections; the centre to centre-right Patriotic Union (VU), centre-right Progressive Citizens' Party (FBP), centre-left Free List (FL) and newly created right-wing populist alliance The Independents (DU).
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 Progressive Citizens' Party, which won 11 seats. The Free List 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. 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 Landtag 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, Gamprin, Mauren, Ruggell and Schellenberg. The other constituency, Oberland, consists of the municipalities of Balzers, Planken, Schaan, Triesen, Triesenberg and Vaduz.
Opinion polls
On 28 January 2013, the newspaper Liechtensteiner Vaterland 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:
| Party | % |
|---|---|
| Patriotic Union | 44.8 |
| Progressive Citizens' Party | 40.5 |
| Free List | 7.9 |
| The Independents | 6.9 |
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 votes against austerity 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.
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Progressive Citizens' Party | 77,644 | 40.00 | 10 | –1 | |
| Patriotic Union | 65,118 | 33.55 | 8 | –5 | |
| The Independents | 29,739 | 15.32 | 4 | New | |
| Free List | 21,604 | 11.13 | 3 | +2 | |
| Total | 194,105 | 100.00 | 25 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 14,723 | 95.83 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 640 | 4.17 | |||
| Total votes | 15,363 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 19,251 | 79.80 | |||
| Source: Landtagswahlen | |||||
By electoral district
| Electoral district | Seats | Electorate | Party | Candidates | Votes | % | Swing | Seats won |
+/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oberland | 15 | 12,521 | Progressive Citizens' Party | Christian Batliner Alois Beck Wendelin Lampert Christine Wohlwend Albert Frick Eugen Nägele Norman Marxer Helmuth Büchel Wilfried Ospelt Barbara Schädler-Lampert Günther Boss René Vogt Gaston Jehle Carolina Marxer Markus Bürgler |
55,233 | 39.3 |  2.5
|
6 | 0 | |
| Patriotic Union | Frank Konrad Christoph Wenaweser Thomas Vogt Christoph Beck Karin Rüdisser-Quaderer Manfred Kaufmann Peter Hilti Marion Kindle-Kühnis Stefan Schädler Edith Maier Vogt Leander Schädler Markus Rutz Ursula Oehry-Walther Albert Vogt Ines Rampone-Wanger |
48,586 | 34.6 | 14.3
|
5 | 3
| ||||
| The Independents | Harry Quaderer Pio Schurti Thomas Rehak Paul Lenherr Toni Jäger Giovanna Gould |
20,748 | 14.8 | New | 2 | New | ||||
| Free List | Helen Konzett Bargetze Thomas Lageder Andreas Heeb René Hasler Derya Kesci Elisabeth Seger |
16,058 | 11.4 |  2.0
|
2 | 2
| ||||
| Unterland | 10 | 6,730 | Progressive Citizens' Party | Johannes Kaiser Elfried Hasler Gerold Büchel Manfred Batliner Rainer Gopp Carmen Zanghellini-Pfeiffer René Schierscher Hubert Lampert Othmar Oehri Petra Schäper-Vogt |
22,411 | 41.9 | 6.3
|
4 | 1
| |
| Patriotic Union | Judith Öhri Violanda Lanter-Koller Peter Büchel Werner Kranz Dominik Oehri Gabriel Hoop Martina Brändle-Nipp Roland Alber Philipp Gstöhl Nina Schwarzkopf-Hilti |
16,532 | 30.9 | 13.3
|
3 | 2
| ||||
| The Independents | Herbert Elkuch Erich Hasler Peter Wachter Johannes Ilic |
8,991 | 16.8 | New | 2 | New | ||||
| Free List | Wolfgang Marxer Patrick Risch |
5,546 | 10.4 | 2.7
|
1 | 1
| ||||
| Source: Office for Information and Communication of the Government | ||||||||||
See also
References
- "Office for Information and Communication of the Government". Retrieved 4 February 2013.
- Burmeister, Thomas (1 February 2013). "Cleaner but poorer, Liechtenstein goes to the polls". Europe online magazine. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
- "1973.050 | Lilex - Gesetzesdatenbank des Fürstentums Liechtenstein". www.gesetze.li. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
- Beste Beurteilung für Wahlkampf der VU Liechtensteiner Vaterland, 28 January 2013
- ^ "New Independent party rattles Liechtenstein vote". GlobalPost. 3 February 2013. Archived from the original on 21 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
- "Politics in tiny Liechtenstein shaken up by surprise election success of independents". Fox News. 3 February 2013. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
- "Mehrheit der Stimmzettel wurden angepasst". Vaterland. 4 February 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
- "VU: Amann-Marxer und Rick zum Wahlausgang". Volksblott. 4 February 2013. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
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