Court orders rerun of Austrian presidential elections

An investigation into the election process revealed formal irregularities in vote-counting in several constituencies. As a result, Austrian constitutional court president Gerhart Holzinger announced on Friday that the run-off vote between Norbert Hofer, of the populist rightwing Freedom party, and Green-backed Alexander Van der Bellen would have to be repeated across the whole country.

In May, the election was neck and neck, with Hofer losing to Van der Bellen with a majority of only 30,863 votes.

The investigation was carried out after the Freedom party had contested the outcome of the vote, claiming to have detected formal “irregularities” in 94 out of 117, submitting a 150-word formal complaint to the constitutional court.

According to the Guardian, the investigation revealed that several counting centres had begun to process postal votes on the eve of the election, rather than on the day after the election, as Austrian electoral law requires.

However, so far there seems to be no evidence that the outcome of the election has been actively manipulated.

Election winner Alexander Van der Bellen, a retired economics professor and former leader of Austria’s Green party, was due to be sworn as prime minister in a week’s time, on Friday 8 July.

The ruling is unprecedented in Austria. In 1970 and 1995 the country’s constitutional court had ordered re-elections in individual councils, but not in the entire country.

Following the court's order to re-run the vote, President Heinz Fischer will be replaced on a temporary basis by three parliamentary officials, including Hofer.