The announcement of Austria's presidential voting result was pushed back to Tuesday as election commissions applied meticulous counting standards to prevent new irregularities, the Interior Ministry announced Monday night, according to dpa. Even though the commissions were not done with counting all of the 700,000 absentee ballots, Alexander Van der Bellen's victory over his far-right rival Norbert Hofer was secure, according to polling experts. The pro-EU economist won with 53.3 per cent over Hofer's 46.7 per cent in Sunday's election, according to a projection by public broadcaster ORF that took into account the voting behaviour of absentee voters. The first run-off election in May was annulled because absentee ballots had been counted too early or without proper supervision, and Austria's top court ordered a re-vote. On Monday evening, only the results from Tyrol's Innsbruck region were outstanding. "Accuracy comes first," said Florian Kurzthaler, spokesman of the regional administration. According to the projection, former Green party chief Van der Bellen managed to expand his narrow 0.7-per-cent lead over the eurosceptic Hofer from May to 6.6 per cent on Sunday. Van der Bellen's win came as a welcome relief to Europe's political establishment, which has been unnerved by populist victories in Britain and the United States. The repeat vote between Van der Bellen and Hofer drew 74 per cent of eligible voters to the polls. Van der Bellen had the support of many Social Democratic and centre-right politicians from the coalition government, as well as from many well-known artists and intellectuals. The setback for the far-right may only be temporary, however, as Hofer's opposition Freedom Party has been leading in polls and looks set to win the next parliamentary election.
