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Voting card envelopes for Austrian presidential elections draw concerns of tampering

Xinhua, September 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

The envelopes for voting cards for the upcoming Austrian presidential elections continue to be a concern for authorities as some have been found to be reopened after being sealed, Austria Press Agency reported Thursday.

"This has never happened before," a spokesman for the Interior

Ministry said, confirming on Thursday several cases in which the glue

strips designed to seal postal votes were unstuck, making the

ballots invalid.

The ministry described the issue as "a new phenomenon," after authorities on Monday confirmed problems with about 1,000 envelopes, most of which are defective.

The Constitutional Court in July annulled the May vote because ballots and voting results were handled improperly, giving a second chance to right wing Free Party candidate Norbert Hofer who lost out on the top job by a slim margin.

Hofer and Green contender Alexander Van der Bellen will go head-to-head

again in the new run-off scheduled for Oct. 2. Endi