Deadline Approaches for ÖH Election Eligibility

Students planning to participate in the upcoming elections for the Austrian Students' Union (ÖH) from May 13 to 15 must ensure they are registered for the summer semester by Tuesday, March 25. In addition to their registration, they are required to pay the ÖH contribution of EUR24.70, along with any applicable tuition fees. This deadline is crucial as it will determine how many of the approximately 400,000 students across universities, private universities, universities of applied sciences, and pedagogical universities are eligible to vote.

Starting on Tuesday, students will also be able to submit their election proposals or candidacies. New groups wishing to participate in the elections for the federal representation or university representation will need to gather signatures from eligible voters. Specifically, they must collect a total of 200 signatures from students across at least seven different institutions. For individual university representation, the required number of signatures varies from ten to 200, depending on the size of the institution. Existing factions that already hold a mandate will only need the signature of one current representative along with a designated delivery agent to qualify for participation.

From April 3 until May 6, students can apply for postal voting ballots, but this option is only available for the elections concerning university representation and the federal representation. Elections for student representatives at individual institutions must be conducted in person. The final list of candidates will be confirmed by April 15, marking the cutoff date for any amendments to the election proposals. However, if there are no discrepancies in the submitted proposals, the ballot list could be finalized even earlier, by April 8, which is the deadline for submitting these proposals.