Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
REPORTED BY KALAHAN DENG
Austria’s far-right presidential candidate Norbert Hofer has conceded defeat in an election re-run after exit polls showed a clear win for his rival.
Hofer’s announcement puts left-leaning Alexander Van der Bellen in the clear to assume the presidency. Official results are not expected until late Sunday or early Monday, but exit polls announced by state broadcaster ORF showed Van der Bellen with 53.6% of the vote.
The original presidential vote was held in May, with Van der Bellen, a former Green Party leader, defeating Hofer by little more than 30,000 votes in a tightly fought contest decided by mail-in ballots.
Austrians began voting on Sunday in a presidential election re-run that puts far-right anti-immigration candidate Norbert Hofer up against the left-wing Alexander Van der Bellen.
While the Austrian president’s role is largely ceremonial, the vote is being closely watched around the world as a yardstick of wider anti-establishment sentiment.
If Hofer wins, he would become the first far-right head of state in Western Europe since the end of World War II.
But if Van der Bellen wins, his election would mark a significant change to Austria’s political landscape, which has been dominated by two centrist parties since the end of the war.
The original presidential vote was held in May, with Van der Bellen, a former Green Party leader, defeating Hofer by little more than 30,000 votes in a tightly fought contest decided by mail-in ballots.
But the results were challenged by Hofer and his party, and were eventually annulled over concerns about how some ballots were handled.
