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Austria sees closest presidential election result in post-WWII era

Xinhua, May 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

The 2016 Austrian presidential election marked the narrowest winning margin for a victor in such elections in the country since the end of World War II.

Alexander Van der Bellen won by a margin of 31,026 votes in a runoff against Norbert Hofer.

No closer result has ever been seen in the 13 presidential elections since 1951, with the next-closest result in 1965, when Franz Jonas won 50.69 percent to become president, according to Austria Press Agency.

Van der Bellen lagged behind Hofer in the first round of the voting. The result of the runoff also marked the third time a candidate has achieved a reversal.

Hofer appeared to have a slight edge after a preliminary vote count on Sunday, though a record number of postal votes shifted the balance in Van der Bellen's favor. Endi