Austrian presidential election must be rerun after result overturned
Constitutional court decides irregularities skewed results
- Independent Alexander Van der Bellen narrowly defeated far right's Norbert Hofer
- Austrian presidency is largely a ceremonial role but result is seen as symbolic
The constitutional court in Austria has overturned the result of the country's presidential election and ordered a re-run after independent Alexander Van der Bellen won by a majority of only 30,863 votes.
Gerhart Holzinger, the president of the court, announced on Friday that there would have to be another election as an investigation revealed irregularities in the vote count in several areas.
Right wing populist Norbert Hofer was narrowly defeated by Van der Bellen, who was backed by the Green Party, in a contest for the office which is largely seen as ceremonial.
The Freedom party had argued the outcome of the vote was injust after claiming to have detected formal irregularities in 94 out of 117 constituencies, submitting a 150-page formal document to the constitutional court.
During the investigation, it had emerged that several counting centres had begun to process postal votes on the eve of the election, rather than on the day after the election, as Austrian electoral law requires.