First Polling Stations Open in Austrian Presidential Rerun

First polling stations opened across Austria early on Sunday as the alpine nation is voting in a presidential election that could see post-WWII Europe’s first far-right leader being elected.

VIENNA (Sputnik) — Some of the polling places welcomed the first voters at 7 a.m. (6:00GMT), while others are due to open in three hours. The voting will end by 5 p.m. Almost 6.4 million of eligible voters can cast their ballots.

The presidential rerun was called after Austria’s top court overturned the results of May’s election over postal vote irregularities following an appeal from the far-right Freedom Party.

The poll was won by Green-backed economist and former Social Democrat Alexander Van der Bellen who defeated Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer in the runoff by just 31,000 votes. The turnout was estimated at 72 percent, or almost 4.4 million.