In the Austrian presidential election of 1992, incumbent Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...

 did not seek reelection, since he did not gain acceptance in the international community.

The strongest party at that time, the Austrian Social Democratic Party, proposed the current minister of traffic and nationalized industries, Rudolf Streicher, for the office, while the Austrian People's Party

Austrian People's Party

The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...

 put up career diplomat Thomas Klestil

Thomas Klestil

Thomas Klestil was an Austrian diplomat and politician. He was elected the tenth President of Austria in 1992 and was re-elected to the position in 1998...

. Streicher won the first ballot by a small margin, but did not obtain the necessary majority of votes to avoid a second round. However, with the candidates of the smaller parties out in the second ballot, and after a recommendation by Jörg Haider

Jörg Haider

Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within Austria and abroad for comments...

to vote for Klestil, the latter won the second round by an unexpectedly wide margin.

Election results