Legal challenge to Austria election
Print Edition
AUSTRIA’S anti-immigration Freedom Party yesterday filed a legal challenge after its candidate, Norbert Hofer, narrowly lost out on being elected the EU’s first far-right president, alleging “terrifying” irregularities.
“We are not sore losers. This is about protecting the very foundations of democracy ... The extent of irregularities is more than terrifying,” party leader Heinz-Christian Strache told a news conference in Vienna.
“You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to have a bad gut feeling about this whole election ... Without these glitches and irregularities Hofer could have become president.”
Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent backed by the Green Party, defeated Hofer in May 22’s runoff by 30,863 votes, prompting relief among Europe’s struggling centrist politicians.
Preliminary results released that evening had given a narrow lead to gun enthusiast Hofer, 54, presented as the party’s friendly face, but who is highly critical of Islam and the EU.
However, after some 700,000 postal votes — a record — were counted, Van der Bellen, 72, was declared the winner of the largely ceremonial but coveted presidency.
Authorities have said they are investigating several cases of alleged irregularities. Mostly, however, concerns about postal votes being opened too early.
The Greens said yesterday that the Freedom Party “has failed to present one single concrete case of a vote being miscounted.” Procedural problems “need to be avoided in future but are not electoral fraud.”
But Strache, flanked by two lawyers, said the law had been broken in 94 of Austria’s 117 constituencies, including 82 where postal votes were counted too early, representing over 570,000 votes.
The constitutional court has until July 6 to decide if the party’s 150-page challenge stands up. The election could in theory be held again partially or in its entirety.
This could make for a tense wait with Van der Bellen set to be sworn in on July 8. Court spokesman Christian Neuwirth said it was “getting straight down to work” in order to finish well in time.
Hofer, who wasn’t at yesterday’s news conference, has accepted defeat but Strache has been crying foul ever since the result was announced.
Strache’s Facebook page — “liked” by 370,000 people — has been inundated with calls for him to challenge the outcome.
He was, however, obliged to call on supporters to tone down their comments after some called for violence and Van der Bellen’s address was published, reportedly prompting extra police protection.
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