title: 1998 Austrian presidential election
text: # 1998 Austrian presidential election
  
  Presidential elections were held in Austria on 19 April 1998. The result was a victory for the incumbent, President Thomas Klestil, who sought re-election as an independent candidate. The Austrian People's Party, who had originally put him up in 1992, reluctantly supported him again, while the Austrian Social Democratic Party and the Austrian Freedom Party did not propose any competing candidates. Klestil's competitors were Heide Schmidt, leader of the Liberal Forum, Gertraud Knoll, the former Lutheran superintendent of Burgenland (supported by the Greens), socialite Richard Lugner and Karl Walter Nowak.
  
  ## Results
  
  | Candidate | Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
  | - | - | - | - | - |
  | | Thomas Klestil | Independent (ÖVP) | 2,644,034 | 63.42 |
  | | Gertraud Knoll | Independent (Greens) | 566,551 | 13.59 |
  | | Heide Schmidt | Liberal Forum | 464,625 | 11.14 |
  | | Richard Lugner | The Independents | 413,066 | 9.91 |
  | | Karl Nowak | Independent | 81,043 | 1.94 |
  | Total | Total | Total | 4,169,319 | 100.00 |
  | Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 4,169,319 | 95.82 |
  | Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 181,953 | 4.18 |
  | Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 4,351,272 | 100.00 |
  | Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 5,848,584 | 74.40 |
  | Source: Ministry of Interior |||||
  
  ### By state
  
  | State | Klestil | Knoll | Schmidt | Lugner | Nowak | Electorate | Votes | Valid votes | Invalid votes |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Burgenland | 114,377 | 31,499 | 12,127 | 12,285 | 1,950 | 214,827 | 181,099 | 172,238 | 8,861 |
  | Lower Austria | 591,163 | 110,350 | 84,058 | 87,964 | 15,869 | 1,136,258 | 929,330 | 889,404 | 39,926 |
  | Vienna | 347,453 | 98,427 | 121,502 | 94,759 | 11,600 | 1,116,014 | 699,299 | 673,741 | 25,558 |
  | Carinthia | 194,802 | 38,639 | 24,314 | 28,493 | 4,153 | 425,185 | 305,195 | 290,401 | 14,794 |
  | Styria | 425,966 | 70,763 | 54,456 | 54,454 | 12,524 | 915,471 | 640,995 | 618,163 | 22,832 |
  | Upper Austria | 461,139 | 107,460 | 65,867 | 55,146 | 14,444 | 989,228 | 733,913 | 704,056 | 29,857 |
  | Salzburg | 164,498 | 34,743 | 27,219 | 13,829 | 4,930 | 355,521 | 255,476 | 245,219 | 10,257 |
  | Tirol | 217,490 | 41,178 | 40,328 | 45,079 | 8,508 | 467,615 | 369,823 | 352,583 | 17,240 |
  | Vorarlberg | 110,023 | 26,908 | 28,613 | 19,401 | 6,740 | 228,465 | 203,790 | 191,685 | 12,105 |
  | Source: European Election Database Archived 24 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine ||||||||||
  