Austrian Presidential Elections again, Court decides Austria Presidential Re elections 2016, Austrian presidential election result overturned, Alexander Van der Bellen, Green, Norbert Hofer, Freedom party

Austria’s Freedom party will get another go at providing the first far-right president in the European Union, after the country’s constitutional court annulled the result of May’s presidential election.

The party had challenged the result, saying that postal votes had been illegally and improperly handled.

1. The Freedom Party candidate, Norbert Hofer, lost the election to the former leader of the Greens, Alexander Van der Bellen, by just 30,863 votes or less than one percentage point.
2. The Freedom party contested the outcome of May’s vote after claiming to have detected formal irregularities in 94 out of 117 constituencies, submitting a 150-page formal complaint to the constitutional court.

Read More: Austria Second Round of Election Schedule Released – October 2

1. Van der Bellen had won the final round of the election even though Hofer had emerged as the winner of the first round.

2. The 72-year-old was due to be sworn in as president in a week’s time, on Friday 8 July.

3. The election will now be re-run.