Extraparliamentary parties involved in the 2008 Austrian legislative election and the Communist Party of Austria, which has contested all elections in Austria since 1945, a number of other parties stated they planned to or were considering contesting the election. Parties require either the signatures of 3 MPs or the signatures 2,600 citizens (proportionally divided among the different states: 100 in Burgenland and Vorarlberg, 200 in Carinthia, Salzburg and Tyrol, 400 in Styria and Upper Austria and 500 in Lower Austria and Vienna) between 29 July 2008 and 22 August 2008 in order to stand. The signatures have to come from citizens who are eligible to vote in the election;
Vorarlberg is an informal meeting where casual music is played or recited by friends clubs or musicians, both on a professional and amateur level. The first Schubertiade took place in Hohenems in Vorarlberg in 1976. In addition, there are many museums and attractions such as the Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Vorarlberg Museum, the Jewish Museum of Hohenems and the Wälderbähnle ("Bregenz Forest Railway"), a narrow gauge heritage railway that today links Schwarzenberg to Bezau amidst a picturesque alpine scenery. Before the Romans conquered Vorarlberg, there were two Celtic tribes settled in this area: the Raeti in the highlands, and the Vindelici in