Austrian Razor-Edge Vote Means Absentees to Decide President
- Freedom Party’s Hofer and Green’s Van der Bellen seek top post
- Country polarized by election, split between urban and rural
Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) presidential candidate Norbert Hofer, left, and leader of the FPOe Heinz-Christian Strache wave flags on stage during Hofer's final election campaign rally at the Viktor Adler Markt in Vienna, Austria on May 20,2016.
Photographer: Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty ImagesAustria’s presidential election is heading for a photo finish after the anti-immigration Freedom Party and a Green Party-backed candidate were virtually tied in the runoff vote, laying bare the country’s political divisions.
The outcome will be decided by about 740,000 absentee ballots being counted Monday after the Freedom Party candidate, Norbert Hofer, failed to press home his first-round advantage to secure a clear victory over his Green opponent, Alexander Van der Bellen. Pollsters projected that Van der Bellen needs to capture about 60 percent of the mail votes to win, a possibility that Hofer -- a European Union-skeptic -- alluded to.