[1][2] They were the first elections held under universal male suffrage, after an electoral reform abolishing tax paying requirements for voters had been adopted by the Council and was endorsed by Emperor Franz Joseph earlier in the year.

[3] Under the shadow of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and large-scale demonstrations organized by the Social Democrats, the emperor to placate the public had a reform of the former five-class suffrage system, drafted by Minister-President Paul Gautsch von Frankenthurn.

His successor, Baron Max Wladimir von Beck, pushed it through against fierce resistance from the Austrian House of Lords and the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

The numerous political associations were again split according to ethnicity ("nations"), with a result that no government could ever rely on a stable majority.

It also achieved the majority in the capital, Vienna, benefiting from the popularity of the Christian Social mayor, Karl Lueger.