Austrian Right Candidate Hofer’s Campaign Due in August Amid Election Rerun

Austrian Freedom Party’s hopeful Norbert Hofer will start a new election campaign after the constitutional court's ruling to re-run the second round of the presidential vote.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Austrian Freedom Party’s (FPO) candidate Norbert Hofer will launch a new election campaign following the Constitutional Court’s decision to re-run the second round of the presidential vote, which should begin in August, Hofer’s spokesman told Sputnik Friday.

"There will be a campaign but it will start in August I think," Konrade Belakowitsch said.

Belakowitsch added that although the date for re-run of the election has not been set yet, more information on the matter would be available next week.

"It (the date) is not fixed yet, it is an open question, next week we will know more… But we suppose the elections will be in the last week of September or in the first week of October," he stressed.

On May 22, Austrians voted in the second round of the presidential election, choosing between independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen and FPO candidate Norbert Hofer. Van der Bellen was elected president after the authorities counted postal votes, despite Hofer leading in exit polls. Following the announcement of the results, the FPO filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court.

Earlier on Friday, the Constitutional Court ruled that the country should stage a rerun of the second round of the presidential election following a complaint by FPO about "irregularities and failures" during the vote counting.