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Court overturns Austria presidential poll

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Oersted

Member
Austria's highest court has annulled last month's presidential election narrowly lost by the right-wing candidate of the Freedom Party.

The party had challenged the result, saying that postal votes had been improperly handled.

The Freedom Party candidate, Norbert Hofer, lost the election to the former leader of the Greens, Alexander Van der Bellen, by less than a percentage point.

The election will now be re-run.

If elected, Mr Hofer will become the first far-right head of state of an EU country.

Following the court's order to re-run the vote, President Heinz Fischer will be replaced on a temporary basis by three parliamentary officials, including Mr Hofer.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europ...ing&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_centra

Lock if old. Will update when new infos come in. Please note this is a BBC Breaking News article, so it is poised to change and expand with information.
 
Remember reading a few bits and pieces that made the result sound quite fiddled honestly. 126% voter turnout in some places etc.
 

Fliesen

Member
On what grounds? Is a slim majority not a majority enough?

Too many irregularities among the final poll, especially the postal votes.

Their decision "doesn't make a winner, nor a loser. It is meant to strengthen the trust."

They're not wrong. Stuff was handled shittily.
(And i voted Van der Bellen)
 

Enosh

Member
On what grounds? Is a slim majority not a majority enough?
too many irregularities in the voting, mostly minor things like opening postal votes too soon etc

and I completely agree, if there are rules in place you better follow them, it shouldn't be up for debate if in a first world democracy we follow the rules and regulation of vote counting that are in place
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
This is bad, right?

Actually, it's not.
From now on votes will hopefully be handled more carefully. Worst case scenario is we will now get the racist idiot as "President" but the "President" in Austria is kinda like the Queen in England. Nothing important. Though obviously I would still prefer Van der Bellen (the winner of the last poll)

Better now than after a "real" vote.
 
Worst case scenario is we will now get the racist idiot as "President" but the "President" in Austria is kinda like the Queen in England.

Not really.
The Austrian president is capable of dismissing the parliament, and is the one who forms the cabinet. Norbert Hofer as president means that an FPÖ minority government is possible, if not likely.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything

Zatoth

Member
Not really.
The Austrian president is capable of dismissing the parliament, and is the one who forms the cabinet. Norbert Hofer as president means that an FPÖ minority government is possible, if not likely.

It may also affect foreign investments. Will not be as bad as it was with Waldheim, but still shows Austria in a bad light.

But, yes. Rules have to be followed and I hope we will not end up with a situation like this again.
 
Fun fact: The comission to take over the duties until the repeated vote has a certain member, the one and only Norbert Hofer, also known as the presidential candidate of those right-wing nutjobs from the FPÖ!

E: I see the OP now has that fun fact too, bummer! :[
 

Alx

Member
So is there a chance that the result might turn out different ? Are there regret votes, would we expect more or less voters on both sides the second time ?
It's actually interesting to see how a quick revote of a tight result can turn out...
 

Zatoth

Member
So is there a change that the result might turn different ? Are there regret votes, would we expect more or less voters the second time ?
It's actually interesting to see how a quick revote of a tight result can turn out...

It was very close. Only 30k votes in favour of VdB. So, yes, it is possible that we have another result after the new election.

Just hope this time VdB wins with a bigger lead.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
So is there a chance that the result might turn out different ? Are there regret votes, would we expect more or less voters on both sides the second time ?
It's actually interesting to see how a quick revote of a tight result can turn out...

People who didn't Hofer (who lost) vote because "my guy is going to win anyway", people who won't even realise this is happening, people who just don't care enough.
There is a real chance the end result might change
 

Fliesen

Member
Actually, it's not.
From now on votes will hopefully be handled more carefully. Worst case scenario is we will now get the racist idiot as "President" but the "President" in Austria is kinda like the Queen in England. Nothing important. Though obviously I would still prefer Van der Bellen (the winner of the last poll)

Better now than after a "real" vote.

careful.
Legitimization of a certain way of thinking. Legitimizing right wing politics - that's what happened in England after the referendum. - and we saw the surge of anti immigrant violence, the following days.

And there's no stronger legitimization than making someone who thinks a certain way the president.
 

Zatoth

Member
careful.
Legitimization of a certain way of thinking. Legitimizing right wing politics - that's what happened in England after the referendum. - and we saw the surge of anti immigrant violence, the following days.

And there's no stronger legitimization than making someone who thinks a certain way the president.

I think it is already scary that FPÖ voters are so open about it. I remember times when people would not admit that.
 

Oersted

Member
Fun fact: The comission to take over the duties until the repeated vote has a certain member, the one and only Norbert Hofer, also known as the presidential candidate of those right-wing nutjobs from the FPÖ!

E: I see the OP now has that fun fact too, bummer! :[

You could says it has to be repeated
 

Fliesen

Member
I think it is already scary that FPÖ voters are so open about it. I remember times when people would not admit that.

Aye, but the issue is:

way below half of the FPÖ voters are actually far right xenophobics.
Many of them are conservatives afraid of a green president, or anti-establishment voters.

The issue is that the far right voters would believe themselves to be the MAJORITY, when actually they aren't.
Which is exactly what happened in England.

There's many Brexiters who aren't xenophobes, still the xenophobes themselves feel legitimized by the >50% result

Damn, that sucks. How does something that stupid happen with something so important?

to be fair, most of the places where this happened was them opening the ballots when they started counting the regular votes.
The election took place on a sunday. They opened the postal ballots on sunday evening. They should've opened them on monday.

Still, the election didn't follow the rules of the election and has rightfully been overturned, as much as it hurts :(
 
Yes maybe, in theory. Just like the Queen. In theory the Queen can declare war, remove ministers and appoints the PM.

I'm well aware of the authorities of the BP and the Queen.
However, between the Queen and presidential candidate Norbert Hofer, the Queen never threatened that "You'll be surprised what's possible" in regards to the limited authorities of the BP.

I think it is already scary that FPÖ voters are so open about it. I remember times when people would not admit that.

There have been open appeals for violence against Van der Bellen, along with the release of his living address, on the Facebook page of HC Strache.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
careful.
Legitimization of a certain way of thinking. Legitimizing right wing politics - that's what happened in England after the referendum. - and we saw the surge of anti immigrant violence, the following days.

And there's no stronger legitimization than making someone who thinks a certain way the president.

That's a good point
 
I've watched a broadcast of the Constitutional Court, who has explained in detail as to why they made this decision, and in particular the decision to repeat the election in the entire country. In short:

- It is possible to submit the postal vote not only by mail, but also by handing the postal vote to an electoral authority before a certain date. This office does not have to be in the particular constituency you are from (so if you are, say, from Vienna, you can submit your postal vote to the electoral office in Graz). To avoid people voting twice, they cannot repeat only with votes from the affected constituencies.
- Apparently, there was an unofficial flow of information from the electoral office towards the media that gave out information of the current standings of the elections. The court decided that theoretically, this could have had influence on the outcome of the vote, and thus is part of the reason as to why the election has to repeated everywhere.
 

Zatoth

Member
Out of curiosity. What would happen if VdB says he is not interested in running again? (will not happen) Would take make Hofer president or would we have to redo the first one?
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
I know all of those are jokes but the irony of those jokes are killing me. Germany doesn't want to lead. Germany just wants everyone to get their shit together.
Some Germans may want that, but let's just wait until our Nazis from the AfD also enter the parliament and become third or second strongest party.

Too many irregularities among the final poll, especially the postal votes.

Their decision "doesn't make a winner, nor a loser. It is meant to strengthen the trust."

They're not wrong. Stuff was handled shittily.
(And i voted Van der Bellen)
If there is no doubt about the correctness of the result though, they should just have instated consequences for the decision makers of the breaking of the regularities instead. Having a whole re-election is costly (independent of the risk that a nationalist scumbag may become president).
 
Everything ended up fine last time for right rose to power in Austria

Y-yeah, just fine... just massive blows to welfare, healthcare and education. Just the biggest financial crisis in the entire history of the republic that was pretty much directly caused by the far right.

Please don't tell me you're making a reference to the Anschluss. Please.
 
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