Roundup: Austrian presidential election to be re-held following successful court challenge

The Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) ruled Friday in favor of a challenge to the result of the May 22 presidential election run-off round, concluding that a repeat election will need to be held.

VfGH president Gerhart Holzinger said at the presentation of the findings in Vienna that the vote will be re-held nationwide, not simply in some electoral districts as media had speculated may happen.

The decision largely came down to a lax handling of postal votes, he stated.

Holzinger said irregularities that occurred in the counting of the postal votes in 14 electoral districts, such as their opening without the required presence of electoral authorities.

He said that no direct evidence of vote manipulation had been indicated to have occurred by any electoral authorities who were questioned by the court during proceedings.

At the same time, Holzinger noted that the proper procedure for vote counting had been violated. As such, no proof that any vote manipulation took place was even necessary, he added.

Holzinger said the nation-wide electronic availability of these partial results, that had been found to have occurred at about 1:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) on election day, should in the court's view not have been permissible.

Holzinger said the public availability of the running results "goes against the principle of freedom of choice," and that it could not be ruled out that the passing on of these results could have had an impact on the outcome of the election.

He said that while the decision "makes no one a winner and no one a loser," it serves one primary purpose, to strengthen trust in rule of law and as a result democracy.

"Voting is one of the fundamentals of our democracy," Holzinger said, adding that it is the duty of his court to protect this.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said the decision by the VfGH is to be accepted.

"I want to emphasize that this verdict should not be a cause for emotions," he said in a statement on Friday afternoon.

The chancellor thanked the VfGH judges for their "quick, objective, and transparent" ruling in the case that began on June 20.

Kern said he wishes for the swift implementation of the new election, as well as a "short election campaign that is not carried by emotions."

The result comes in favor of the challenge put forth by the far-right Freedom Party, whose candidate Norbert Hofer narrowly lost the election to challenger Alexander Van der Bellen, former Greens leader.

It marks the first time a federal election will have been re-held across the entirety of the country, as opposed to only selected regions. Endit