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| Politics of Austria |
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Presidential elections were held in Austria on 24 April 2016, with a second round run-off on 22 May 2016.[1] However, the results of the second round were annulled and a re-vote took place on 4 December 2016.[2][3]
Incumbent President Heinz Fischer had served two terms and was not eligible to be elected for a third successive term. In the first round of the election, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) received the most votes. Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent candidate who formerly a member of both the Austrian Greens and the Social Democratic, placed second. The candidates of the two governing parties, the Social Democratic and Austrian People's parties, placed fourth and fifth respectively, behind independent Irmgard Griss in third place, which led to a government crisis and the resignation of Chancellor Werner Faymann. Since no candidate received a majority of the vote, Hofer and Van der Bellen went head-to-head in the second round in May. This was the first time since the Second World War that an Austrian president had not been backed by either the People's or the Social Democratic party.[4] During the run-off, Van der Bellen defeated Hofer on 23 May 2016 after the postal ballots had been counted.[5]
On 1 July, the results of the second round of voting were annulled after the results in 20 of the 117 administrative districts were challenged, and the Constitutional Court of Austria found that Austrian electoral law had been disregarded in 14 of them. The Court found that over 77,900 absentee votes were improperly counted too early, however without any indication of votes having been fraudulently manipulated.[6] The second round re-vote was planned on 2 October, but was postponed to 4 December 2016.[2][3]
Van der Bellen ultimately won the second round re-vote with 53.8% of the vote and a voter turnout of 74.2%.[7] Hofer conceded the race to Van der Bellen when the result had become apparent shortly after polls closed.[8] Van der Bellen was sworn in as the twelfth president of Austria on 26 January 2017.[9]
- ^ "Wahltermin wird nächste Woche fixiert – Bundespräsident – derStandard.at › Inland". Derstandard.at. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- ^ a b "Austrian presidential election to be postponed due to faulty glue". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
- ^ a b Klatzer, Jürgen, Daniela Wahl and Peter Temel, "Hofburg-Wahl: Stichwahl auf 4.12. verschoben, Jungwähler kommen in Wählerregister" (in German), kurier.at, 12 September 2016.
- ^ "Austrian far-right party wins first round of presidential election". The Guardian. 25 April 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
- ^ "Austria far-right 'narrowly loses poll, electing Van der Bellen president'". BBC News. 23 May 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
- ^ Oltermann, Philip (1 July 2016). "Austrian presidential election result overturned and must be held again". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ Österreich, vorläufiges Endergebnis inklusive Briefwahlstimmen. Archived 23 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine Bundesministerium für Inneres (in German). Retrieved 10 December 2016.
- ^ Oltermann, Philip (4 December 2016). "Far-right candidate concedes defeat in Austrian election". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
- ^ "Van der Bellen takes office as Austrian president". Deutsche Wells. Retrieved 7 February 2017.