Comment on this storyComment
A major Austrian opposition party corrected the results of a hard-fought leadership election on Monday after announcing the wrong winner over the weekend due to a “technical” error: someone had messed up an Excel spreadsheet.
At a party conference on Saturday, the Austrian Social Democrats (SPÖ) declared Hans Peter Doskozil, governor of eastern Burgenland, as the new leader of the centre-left party. But on Monday the party said Andreas Babler, a small-town mayor and lesser-known personality, actually won with around 52 percent of the vote.
“Unfortunately, the ballot papers did not correspond to the result that was announced digitally,” said Michaela Grubesa, chairwoman of the SPÖ election commission, at a press conference. “Due to a technical error by a colleague in the Excel list, the result was mixed up.”
Those familiar with Microsoft’s spreadsheet program, used by millions around the world, were quick to crack jokes, drawing attention to the error and the resulting chaos.
Babler told a news conference after his belated apparent victory that the commission should recount the votes for accuracy, local media reported, adding that the debacle was “painful for everyone involved” and bad for the party’s image.
“I not only feel sorry for Hans Peter Doskozil, but for the entire movement,” he said.
The spreadsheet error threatens to further erode confidence in the Social Democrats, the largest federal opposition group in Austria, despite dissatisfaction with the country’s ruling party, which has struggled with scandals.
The conservative People’s Party has led Austria in a coalition government with the Greens since 2020. In the last round of parliamentary elections in 2019, the SPÖ received 21.2 percent of the vote. It has had no power in the federal legislature since 2017.
The change in leadership comes as the SPÖ prepares for another federal election, which has to take place by the end of 2024. Some of their opponents took the situation as an opportunity to criticize the failure of the SPÖ.
Parties that can’t organize internal elections properly can’t win national polls, said Douglas Hoyos, a member of the centrist NEOS party. on twitter. “The Austrians deserve better,” he added.
LGBTQ groups celebrate Latvia’s election as the EU’s first openly gay President
Saturday’s uproar wasn’t the first time an Excel error marred an election. In 2007, a human rights group alleged that ballot counters internally reported the wrong winner in a Scottish election after failing to count all votes for a particular party in an Excel spreadsheet, the Guardian reported. Local officials disputed this account.
Some Twitter users offered their help to the SPÖ on Monday.
A user marked the SPÖ account in a post Advertisement for an Excel beginners course in Vienna.
Another apparently posted an Amazon order confirmation for the book “Excel for Dummies”, which is to be sent to the SPÖ office. “That is all i can do as a commoner,” the user wrote.