Runoff election necessary: No mayor in St. Martin yet

2023-10-08 14:00:00

The citizens of the community have to vote again before the new mayor of St. Martin is determined. It has been clear since early Sunday afternoon that it is a mayor and not a female mayor: Rainer Höretzeder (FPÖ) and Benjamin Salhofer (ÖVP) will run in the runoff election on October 22nd.
With 44.8 of the votes cast, the FP candidate showed clearly, behind him Benjamin Salhofer (ÖVP) took second place with 36.3 percent, the Green candidate Angelika Langmaier achieved a respectable result and third place with 18.9 percent .

“Keep the momentum going!”

“I’m really pleased with the first round of voting, the mood was good, and the fact that we’re going into the runoff with this result is a great result,” said FP candidate Rainer Höretzeder in an interview with the OÖN. “Respect but also for the other two candidates, especially Angelika Langmaier’s result is respectable,” said Höretzeder. He now wants to “carry on the momentum, continue to convince people and, above all, show that experience pays off,” says Höretzeder. The tension is of course also there before the runoff election, “but I won’t let it bother me anymore, I’m confident,” said Höretzeder on Sunday.

Received 36.3 percent of the vote and is running for the runoff election: Benjamin Salhofer, ÖVP

“36 percent are very good”

His opponent in the runoff election, Benjamin Salhofer, said in an initial reaction: “Considering that I started practically from scratch and was not yet well known in the community, the result of a good 36 percent is very good!” He was satisfied, but also knew that it was now time to “really step on the gas again and convince the voters,” said Salhofer. He is going into the runoff election with “cautious optimism”; what matters now is how the voters of the other parties distribute their votes.

Green candidate “very satisfied”

Although she missed the runoff election, Angelika Langmaier was “very satisfied”. “We have a better result than in the local council election – and just because we are not running for the mayor does not mean that we are not involved in local politics – on the contrary!” Of course we had hoped for more, but the satisfaction outweighs it.” said Langmaier. It has not yet been decided whether an election recommendation will be made for the runoff election.