Women back conservatives

Press, 4 February 1986, Page 10

Women back conservatives

NZPA-Reuter Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Women voted for the first time in the history of Liechtenstein and helped return a conservative coalition to power in the 15-member Parliament, election officials said yesterday. Only one woman candidate among the 10 who stood from the three political groups which sought power was elected. The right to vote for women among the 27,000 population was granted in 1984 when Crown Prince

Hans Adam took over executive power from his father.

The traditional two party conservative coalition was challenged by a list of Green Party candidates pushing for greater action on enviromental issues.

The Greens had hoped women voters would back their challenge but its candidates, including four women, failed to obtain the 8 per cent of the vote needed for a single seat, officials said.

The Fatherland Union Party retained its major-

ity of eight seats in the Parliament, winning 50.2 per cent of the vote. Its coalition partner, the Progressive Burghers, retained its seven seats.

Among the party’s elected candidates was Emma Eigenmann, who became the first woman elected to public office in Liechtenstein.

The three groups had fielded a total of 10 women candidates and 31 men.

Hans Brunhart of the Fatherland Union Party was expected to be reelected as President of

the five member Executive Council.

The reform that gave women the vote more than doubled the electorate in the predominantly Roman Catholic, landlocked country in the Rhine valley. Women represented 55 per cent of the 12,800 people eligible to vote. Officials said most women appeared to have exercised their new right.

Under Liechtenstein law those eligible must vote but officials said penalties had never been enforced.