Austrian president secures re-election with clear win, avoiding runoff

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen secured a second six-year term in office on Sunday by winning a clear majority of votes in an election to avoid a runoff, according to projections based on a partial vote count.

With 95% of the votes cast in polling stations counted, a projection by pollster SORA based on that count put Van der Bellen on 56.1 percent with a margin of error of 1.1 percentage points. His nearest rival was the FPO's Walter Rosenkranz on 17.9 percent.

"Alexander Van der Bellen really managed to ensure in the first round that he will be the next president. I congratulate him on that," Rosenkranz told ORF national broadcaster.

The former leader of the Greens has garnered broad popularity by projecting calm during times of national crisis, including the collapse of the government in 2019 and the resignation of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz a year ago over corruption allegations that Kurz denies.

The far-right Freedom Party (FPO) was the only party in parliament to field a candidate against Van der Bellen, who won a much tighter race against an FPO opponent in 2016.

Grandees from all other parties in parliament backed the president.

"It would be nice if we had clarity today," the economics professor said after casting his ballot in central Vienna earlier Sunday, adding, "Nice for Austria, nice for us -- if we can then fully concentrate on the diverse tasks ahead, the multitude of crises... that we in Austria, in Europe, are facing."

Polls ahead of the election had suggested the pro-European liberal would secure more than 50 percent of the vote, thus avoiding a run-off.

Some 6.4 million people were eligible to cast their ballots from the European Union country's total population of nine million.

"I am in favor of consistency," 73-year-old retiree Monika Gregor told AFP outside a Vienna polling station earlier Sunday, saying she had voted for Van der Bellen and thought he was "very clever".

Election night projections in Austria, issued after voting ends and based on the count from the polling stations that close earlier in the day, have proved reliable in the past.

"Van der Bellen stands for integrity and stability, which is very appreciated by voters given the multitude of crises that many European countries are currently facing," Julia Partheymueller, a political analyst at the University of Vienna, told AFP.

The last polling stations to close include those in the cities of Vienna and Innsbruck.

The Austrian president performs a largely ceremonial role, but also has sweeping powers that mean overseeing periods of transition and turbulence.

The president is the commander in chief of the army and can sack the whole government or the chancellor.

(Source: Agencies)

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