Austrian constitutional court considering challenge of presidential election result

Austria's constitutional court on Monday started to questioning election officials to decide whether Alexander Van der Bellen was elected as president of Austria.

Right wing Freedom Party (FPO) candidate Norbert Hofer was defeated by Green party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen by just over 30,000 votes out of more than 4.5 million ballots.

The presidential election was proven to be a breathtaking race with the closest result in the country's history.

FPO challenged the election result, saying postal votes were opened too early and submitted some evidence to support its allegations.

Hofer was the leading runner before the postal votes were taken into account in the election.

It was alleged that some of the electoral committee members, who are to observe the handling of the votes, did not actually show on the Monday. In the electoral district of Kitzbuehel in the western state of Tyrol, only one such member was present, despite the leader of the electoral authority having claimed he urged the members present on the election Sunday to return for the postal vote count the following day.

One of the committee members from Schwaz, Tyrol, said all members had agreed on the Sunday that they did not necessarily need to be present the following Monday.

It was also confirmed that in some districts the election protocols had not been filled out correctly, or had simply been signed without due care.

Despite the irregularities in the voting procedure, no outright vote manipulation has yet been indicated to have taken place.

The case is to continue at the Constitutional Court until Thursday.

It is expected the court is to rule before the president is sworn in. Endit