Austria to re-run overturned presidential poll in October

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern says a re-run of the presidential election will take place on 2 October. The date has to be confirmed by parliament, but that is a formality. The 22 May vote was annulled last week, after a legal challenge from the far-right Freedom Party. It argued postal votes had been illegally and […]

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern says a re-run of the presidential election will take place on 2 October.
The date has to be confirmed by parliament, but that is a formality.
The 22 May vote was annulled last week, after a legal challenge from the far-right Freedom Party. It argued postal votes had been illegally and improperly handled.
Its candidate Norbert Hofer lost the election to the former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen by a sliver.
Mr Hofer garnered just 30,863 votes fewer than his rival – coming in at less than one percentage point behind.
The Freedom Party lodged a successful legal challenge to the results with the Constitutional Court – Austria’s highest court.
In two weeks of hearings, it argued that postal ballots were illegally handled in 94 out of 117 districts, thousands of votes were opened earlier than permitted under election rules, and some were counted by people unauthorised to do so. The party also claimed to have evidence that some under-16s and foreigners had been allowed to vote.