Election fever is back: nine parties are fighting for the votes!

Election fever is back: nine parties are fighting for the votes!

Nine new parties and lists are running in the upcoming municipal council elections in Styria on March 23, 2025, which will increase the diversity on the ballot papers, reports steiermark.orf.at. However, this is happening against the backdrop of a merger, which means there are now only 284 municipalities in which citizens can cast their votes. Of the parties represented in the state parliament, the FPÖ is running in 258, the SPÖ in 267, the ÖVP in 282 municipalities and the Greens in 102 municipalities. In addition, 74 citizens' lists and special groups such as the "Socially Just List Kapfenberg" are active; in Kapfenberg there are even six parties and two lists represented on the ballot paper.

Eligible voters in Germany called

Around 59.2 million Germans are called to vote in the early federal election in 2025 tagesspiegel.de reported. Voters can cast their vote in two categories: with the first vote for a direct candidate and with the second vote for the state list of a party. This voting method allows citizens to support both individual candidates and their preferred party. The results are displayed on an interactive map that shows changes in election results in recent years.

While a total of 5,062 mandates will be awarded for the 2025 local council elections, the final results of the federal election will only be available after around three months. It is also possible to observe how the electorate has changed over the years and between the different constituencies. Due to the reduced number of municipalities, voters now have to take many new political constellations and citizen lists into account in the local council elections, which makes the election exciting.