Hofer's Result in Austrian Presidential Rerun Notable Despite Loss - Party Head

The head of Austrian candidate Norbert Hofer's campaign lauded his result in the presidential rerun despite losing the vote.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Although far-right Austrian presidential candidate Norbert Hofer lost the Sunday's rerun to Green-backed independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, he showed impressive result considering the hostility of other parties and media toward him, Heinz-Christian Strache, the head of Hofer's Freedom Party, told Sputnik.

"All parties recommended not to vote for him. I think ultimately people will understand that blockade is not the method of the future," Strache said.

Strache also said that contesting the results of the initial Austrian presidential election held in May was the right decision as the uncovered irregularities could have been used for machinations and would therefore undermine voters' rights.

"I definitely do not think that this outcome was influenced by contesting the results of [the previous] election. On the contrary, contesting the results was very important, I believe," Strache said.

Strache expressed hope that van der Bellen would be a fair president capable of uniting the people.

In July, 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 rerun was originally scheduled for October 2, but had to be postponed when some of the glue strips designed to seal postal votes came unstuck, rendering the ballots invalid.