Austria Presidential Election Annulled

Great news out of Austria this morning:

“Austria’s Constitutional court has today ordered May’s presidential election be annulled and another called after “particularly serious cases” of voting fraud were detected in the photo-finish vote.

The Green party-backed candidate Alexander Van der Bellen originally snatched victory by a mere 0.6 per cent in the second round vote, which was taken to decide the new president of central-European state Austria in May. He had made it to the round alongside Freedom Party (FPO) candidate Norbert Hofer, who campaigned to protect Austria from mass migration and Islamification.

Now the Austrian Constitutional court has upheld a complaint by the FPO about conduct in the election. The party had alleged that there were voting “irregularities” in 94 of the 117 total electoral constituencies in the country, reports Kronen Zeitung. …”

They cheated.

Back in May, I didn’t get the chance to write about this story. We had some family members visiting us that weekend. The Austrian presidential election was called for Alexander Van der Bellen who edged Norbert Hofer after he took a slim lead in the mail ballots. Hofer is now calling for a BREXIT-style vote on Austria’s membership in the European Union – an AUXIT – unless significant reforms are passed over the next year.

After BREXIT, the momentum has clearly swung toward populists and nationalists in Europe. This was the one that got away and it remarkable that Austrians will get another swing at it.