Presidential elections were held in
Austria in 1951, the first time that the
President of Austria had been elected by popular vote. A first round of voting was held on 6 May, and with no candidate achieving a majority of the votes, a second round was held on 27 May between the top two candidates, Mayor of Vienna,
Theodor Körner representing the
Socialist Party's, and
Upper Austria Governor
Heinrich Gleißner of the
Austrian People's Party. Although Gleißner received the most votes in the first round Körner won the runoff with 52% of the vote.[1]
Background
A
constitutional amendment in 1929 would have seen the president being elected directly, but a planned election in 1931 was cancelled and the president was instead elected by
Parliament as a public vote was deemed too expensive.[2] After the
suspension of the constitution in 1934,[3] and Austria
ceasing to exist in 1938, the first presidential elections by popular vote were to be held in 1945. However, because the
Allied council did not approve on the constitutional law passed by the
National Council, the election was again held by the
Federal Assembly.[4]