Citing serious irregularities in the counting of postal votes, Austria’s constitutional court issued an unprecedented rule mandating a rerun of the presidential election in which Green party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen narrowly beat Freedom Party and anti-immigration candidate Norbert Hofer.
The Wall Street Journal reports Austrian Court Orders Rerun of Presidential Vote.
Austria’s Constitutional Court ordered a rerun of the final round of the country’s presidential election, giving Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer a second chance of becoming the first right-wing populist head of state in postwar Western Europe.
“The runoff presidential election must be completely repeated in all of Austria,” Gerhart Holzinger, the president of the Constitutional Court, said Friday in Vienna.
The court, acting on the Freedom Party’s challenge of the May 22 election result, ruled that 77,926 of the 4.5 million votes cast were affected by improprieties in how mail-in ballots were processed.
While the court established no instances of fraud, the judges said the improprieties alone were reason enough to annul the vote in light of the tight margin of victory. Independent, pro-refugee candidate Alexander Van der Bellen beat out Mr. Hofer 50.3% to 49.7%, a margin of 30,863 votes.
The ruling, unprecedented for Austria, thrust the Alpine country, and Europe, into deeper political uncertainty a week after the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.
Mr. Hofer’s near-victory in May was one of this year’s most striking signals of European discontent with the pro-EU establishment. Now Mr. Hofer will have another chance of beating Mr. Van der Bellen and becoming the first Western European populist politician to ride the recent wave of voter anger over immigration and European integration to his country’s highest office.
Beyond ceremonial duties, Austria’s president has the power to dismiss the government—led by the chancellor—and call fresh parliamentary elections. Mr. Hofer ran an anti-immigration, anti-free-trade campaign and said he would consider calling early elections as president.
“Crazy to Make a Prognosis”
The Financial Times provided this commentary by political commentator Thomas Hofer.
The repeat election, expected in September, will provide an early test of electoral support for European nationalist parties following the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
“The Freedom party has to be very careful playing with the Brexit vote,” said Thomas Hofer, a political analyst in Vienna. “It is probably one of their vulnerable points because the Austrians do not want to risk what the British did.”
The outcome of the re-run presidential election is unclear and could depend heavily on the turnout, Mr Hofer warned. “It would be crazy to make a prognosis. It is an open race.”
Another Austrian political commentator added: “Being anti-EU is not such a winning thing right now.”
Test of Anti-EU Sentiment Coming Up
A test of anti-EU, anti-immigration sentiment is coming up in Austria.
Any predictions or is it “too crazy” to predict?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
The voter fraud in Philly and Chicago makes these guys look like girl scouts.
No investigations and no do overs.
All close elections magically have thousands of democrat votes appear out of nowhere.
And voter ID is racist. Unless you are any other country in the world…
And 19 districts without a SINGLE Republican vote. None.
What a shame. Check out Texas’s districts gerrymandered beyond all recognition by the Republicans and you’ll see both sides fear democracy. This is one example.
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/img/photos/2012/09/20/c2/e6/WEB040612ushouse35_1424969a.jpg
Billy, that picture IS democracy. It’s what democracy is all about. Which is why those on top of democracies, are so insistent on indoctrinating those who are not, into believing it is a somehow better “system” than all others.
Kind of like how those on top of a fiat based “financial system”, are equally insistent all hell will break lose if a central bank can no longer “save the system” by printing.
“And voter ID is racist. Unless you are any other country in the world…”
Unless you were an independent Sanders voter in California. Democratic party operatives didn’t want those votes counted. How many minority voters were deprived by the party that panders to minority voters?
The leftist candidate and his brood obviously need more lessons from Rahm. Dead voters don’t get prosecuted in Chicago, and there’s no do-overs.
https://i.imgflip.com/149moi.jpg
When it’s serious you have to cheat.
Gerrymandered districts? Big deal, both sides do that. My district went from looking like a squashed bug under the Demoturds to a perforated eel under the Republiclowns. But for serious voter fraud, like having more votes for Obama than there were registered voters in the district or having thousands of long-deceased voters “resurrect” themselves to vote D before returning to the grave, you need corruption on a big city (Chicago or Philly or Baltimore) scale. The Democrooks win that one hands down.
I never promised you an ostrich garden…
GREAT ARTICLE MISH, GREAT REPORT… ATTA BOY!
So we have “irregularities” and “improprieties” but no fraud, eh? Isn’t that special?
Big thumbs up to the Austrian Constitutional Court. I guess the Constitution still means something in Austria. If I wasn’t so damn old I’d consider moving there. I wonder if they allow undocumented Americans to live in their country with access to free medical care, education and complimentary driver’s licenses? Figure the odds.
So the margin stands in favor of Van der Bellen by about 31,000 votes and there were about 78,000 votes affected by the non-fraud “improprieties. Hofer is certainly swimming against the current. Austrians are very orderly and methodical people who tend to side with the established rule and don’t take risks. I guess if they want a mosque on every street corner and Halal fast food joints popping up all over Vienna and Salzburg – that’s their business.
My guess is that many Austrians lost faith in the electoral system when they saw the shenanigans that took place the last election so the court felt obligated to step in and make it look legit.
Now the “impropreitors” have some time to reflect and figure out a way to sway the outcome in their favor so that the court doesn’t feel pressured to intervene.
A big part of life is trial and error.
it was ironic the way the media chose to portray Norbert Hofer
as extreme right-wing, just because he was against current policy towards immigration.
How come the other guy was not portrayed as extreme left-wing
“It is probably one of their vulnerable points because the Austrians do not want to risk what the British did.”
Any country remaining in the EU, is risking.