Court considers far-right call for election re-run

Austria’s constitutional court has begun four days of hearings to decide whether last month’s presidential run-off vote should be rerun because of far-right claims of electoral fraud. Far-right candidate Norbert Hofer lost by just over 30,000 votes to Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen. Mr Hofer’s Freedom Party says thousands of postal votes were opened […]

Austria’s constitutional court has begun four days of hearings to decide whether last month’s presidential run-off vote should be rerun because of far-right claims of electoral fraud.
Far-right candidate Norbert Hofer lost by just over 30,000 votes to Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen.
Mr Hofer’s Freedom Party says thousands of postal votes were opened too early or by unauthorised people.
The court is expected to rule before the president is sworn in on 8 July.
The Freedom Party (FPOe) has submitted a 152-page dossier and some 90 witnesses are due to give evidence to the public hearing by the end of Thursday.
Basing its judgement on records from Austria’s 117 voting districts, the federal electoral commission said a rerun was unnecessary.