EP elections

I have just read an article in today's online edition of "austriantimes.at" and it talks about EP elections.

I thought you might be interested because on Sunday, the 7th of June was the EP election in Austria and most of you are already allowed to elect youself.

The Parties which you could choose between were the People's Party (ÖVP), the Social Democrats (SPÖ), the Right-Wing Freedom Party (FPÖ), Hans-Peter Martin, the Greens (G), the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) and the Young Liberals (JuLi).

Basically what it says is that ÖVP won the first place and the ruling SPÖ was the biggest loser in Sunday's European Parliament election.

It also says that teh result means that the ÖVP will get six mandates, the same as they had won in 2004. The SPÖ made a loss of two mandates and now they have just five and Hans-Peter Martin wins three. The FPÖ will have two mandates, one more than in 2004 and the Greens made a loss too. They will only have one mandate.

What shocked me most is the fact that only 42.4 per cent people cast their vote because in general elections the participation is traditionally much higher.
And what surprised me most is that the BZÖ didn't get enough votes to be in the Parlament any more.