VIENNA, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Austrian voters have decided to keep the draft, officials say, continuing to remain among the few European Union members with mandatory military service.
In a Sunday referendum, 60 percent voted to retain conscription, while 40 percent said they wanted a professional army, the Austrian Times reported Monday.
Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos had supported creation of an all-volunteer military, calling the draft outdated. Modern threats, he said, were terrorism and cybercrime.
Austria drafts about 22,000 men older than 18 each year to serve six months of service.
Advocates of retaining the draft had argued it would be difficult to get 55,000 men to join an all-volunteer force.
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner estimated the cost of creating a professional army at $2.7 billion.
Army chief of staff Gen. Edmund Entacher also had opposed a professional military, charging it would lead "irreversibly to a drop in quality, numbers and ability."
Other critics of a volunteer army feared the loss of 14,000 people each year who perform community service as an alternative to army training.
