Parliamentary elections were held in Austria on 9 October 1949. About 500,000 registered Nazis, who were not allowed to vote in 1945, regained their voting rights. A newly created party, the Electoral Party of Independents (WdU) (a predecessor of the Freedom Party of Austria) specifically targeted this group of voters and immediately won a large share of votes.[1] The Austrian People's Party remained strongest party, although losing their absolute majority of seats. Leopold Figl stayed as Chancellor, leading a coalition with the Socialist Party of Austria as junior partner.[2]
^Institute for Social Research and Consulting (SORA) (2019-07-24), National election results Austria 1919 - 2017 (OA edition) (in German), Austrian Social Science Data Archive (AUSSDA), doi:10.11587/EQUDAL