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Ahahahaha – rerun the Austrian election on postal vote “irregularities”

BERLIN—Austria’s Constitutional Court ordered a rerun of the runoff round of the country’s presidential election, giving Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer a second chance of becoming the first right-wing populist head of state in postwar Western Europe.

“The runoff presidential election must be completely repeated in all of Austria,” Gerhart Holzinger, the president of the Constitutional Court, said Friday in Vienna.

How tight was the margin? And how much of that came from the last few postal votes?

53 thoughts on “Ahahahaha – rerun the Austrian election on postal vote “irregularities””

  1. I think it’s time for proportional representation.

    We know how much Tim has ever paid in income tax.
    We know how much he has ever claimed off the State in benefits.

    If you’re in the black, you get 1 vote.
    If you’re in the red, you get 0 votes.

    Yes I’m including the cost of a prison stay as a benefit.

    Now let’s wonder about an additional vote for anyone who is >£100,000 in the black?

  2. Why not save money and hold a referendum on EU membership of Austria at the same time. Nige could even give the Austrexit side those disgusting migrant queue posters he used for free to save them some money?

  3. We’ve got our own problems with out of control postal ballots. Maybe the new Conservative leader can tighten up on this in time for the next general election.

    Is there any word of how much postal voting played a part in the referendum? I’d bet that most of them went to Remain.

  4. Tom,

    A lot of postal votes came from Brits living overseas. They’re generally more disposed to vote Remain. In the case of Brits living in the EU, that’s often for selfish reasons: they benefit from Britain’s membership of the EU but don’t suffer Britain’s gold-plating of EU regulations.

  5. “Is there any word of how much postal voting played a part in the referendum? I’d bet that most of them went to Remain.”

    I’d have thought it was the other way around – a lot of OAPs use their postal vote, and they were solid Leavers.

  6. Irregularities – polite speak for evidence of massive fraud.

    What’s the betting that Remnants will start tweeting this to get their second unicorn? I mean referendum.

  7. There must not be a re-run of the vote!!!

    Votes are re-run when they produce the wrong g results; results Brussels doesn’t like. This suggestion here is just undemocratic.

  8. At least the UK EU referendum has not suffered from the widespread allegations by the assorted and embittered separatist loons, conspiracy theorists and even foreigners (eg Russia) alleging massive fraud by the vote counting officers in favour of the Union at the Scottish independence referendum

  9. Bloke no Longer in Austria

    Back to the topic.
    Something that I found very strange, was that the Austrian broadcast ORF predicted exactly that the postal votes would produce the 60/40 result for Van der Bellen that they did.

    However, this is very canny batting by the FPOe. They managed to get the election annulled on an irrefutable technicality that happens at every election. It even happened in communes that Hofer won.

    The Greens are flat broke, they just have to hope that they don’t need to run a full campaign again.

  10. The margin was 30,863 votes (2,251,517 votes for van der Bellen, 2,220,654 votes for Hofer).

    There were irregularities with 77,926 postal votes. So the irregularities were clearly larger than the margin of victory.

    http://www.krone.at/Oesterreich/Urteil_Praesidentenwahl_muss_wiederholt_werden-Entscheid_verkuendet-Story-517854

    And yes, when we consider Finnish exit from EU, we tend to call it Fixit. I came by that name by myself but I’m not the only one and probably not the first one.

    I’m not saying Finland really should leave EU (at least not unless it first joins NATO, given who we’ve got for neighbour) but I’m beginning to think the commission and particularly Juncker have lost any confidence they might have had. The poor chap is a sobbing drunk. We have experience of that: Ahti Karjalainen, the would-be heir to the eternal president Kekkonen, eventually lost his position because of a “personal problem” and was placed in “disponibility” (which in the world of diplomacy is a fine word for being shelved).

  11. bnlia
    I hope Hofer wins – not least for the discomfiture it will cause Druncker, Schulz et al. Do you think Brexit could have some influence on the result?

  12. Bloke no Longer in Austria

    Yes Theo, it’s a distinct possibility that Hofer’ll win on a second vote.

    Hofer had a lead of 140,000 from the polling stations and that was overturned by VdB’s postal votes ( he had 450,000 to Hofer’s 280,000)

    There was a “stop Hofer” campaign of all the political parties. I think that this’ll be difficult to repeat. Also don’t forget that Hofer won ( by a mile) the first election and that the same people will be motivated to vote for him again, whereas VdB’s vote is very soft.

    The leader of the FPOe, HC Strache was cock-a-hoop at Brexit and there is a lot ( but not enough to force the issue) Euroscepticism in Austria. It is also perceived that most crime these days is committed by immigrants ( it was the case where I used to live – a single gang of Romanians committed about 80% of the break-ins ).

  13. Bloke no Longer in Austria

    By the way, I should like to state that even I think that HC Strache and the FPOe are a bunch of nutters and I am hardly what one might call a liberal.

  14. It would be satisfying to think that Blair’s rigging of the voting rules has rebounded against his side of politics, but it would be even more satisfying to see the back of such rubbish.

    And it would be wise to get on and reform the constituency boundaries too.

  15. I was wondering how I was going to entertain myself once season 6 of Game of Thrones had ended. I needn’t have worried.

  16. Actually, people’s votes should count based on the amount of tax they pay. Then the very rich and the very poor don’t count, which sounds about right to me….

  17. Theo, disappointing she’s from Cambs.

    Sounder scholarship, traditionally, than from that place in the Cotswolds.

  18. Naked in an official university meeting? I mean, without her academic gown! What’s Cambridge come to?

    Anyway “Cambridge academic, 36” won’t do. What are her other two dimensions?

  19. I said the Left would lose their minds if they lost this vote. They’ve had 26 years of having it their own way since the last person who stood up to them was removed from power and they don’t do losing with dignity. Yes they’ve nominally lost elections but even under Tory governments the general thrust of public policy has been more and more leftwards. Particularly as since 1990 the Left have abandoned economic socialism in favour of moral progressivism instead. And in that sphere they’ve had zero opposition from the Right whatsoever. This is the first time their pet ideology has received a good kicking and they are actually losing their minds as a result.

    Can anyone imagine the consequences for an academic who had turned up to a faculty meeting naked as a protest after a Remain vote? They’d have been sacked faster than you could say Lady Godiva. But this woman will be allowed to continue as if nothing has happened, because the rest of them agree with her. She’ll get a nominal reprimand and that’ll be it.

  20. So Much For Subtlety

    Edward Lud – “disappointing she’s from Cambs. Sounder scholarship, traditionally, than from that place in the Cotswolds.”

    Depends what she looks like in a bikini. 36 is a bit marginal but it could be worth it.

    However “traditionally” where did Philby et al learn their Communism?

  21. Stolen from somewhere else

    Brexit to be followed by Grexit. Departugal. Italeave. Fruckoff. Czechout. Oustria. Finish. Slovakout. Latervia. Byegium.

  22. It seems to me that the Brexit result is basically nullified if May becomes PM, which looks extremely likely at this point. So it’s probably safe for the lady professor to put her clothes back on.

  23. @JerryC:

    Nope. Time and again the Tories have been divided over Europe, if May gets elected, she will make sure that BRExit happens so that the Tories can finally “Quit banging on about Europe”.

    Best way of doing that is to declare full free-trade with the European Union / EEA (so including Norway and Switzerland) then leave it at that.

    The European Union will be dead or irrelevant in 5-years anyway, so best to get it over and out as soon as possible.

  24. So Much For Subtlety

    Dain – “Brexit to be followed by Grexit. Departugal. Italeave. Fruckoff. Czechout. Oustria. Finish. Slovakout. Latervia. Byegium.”

    With Bulgaroff coming last I expect. Right behind the Remainians who will never agree to leave.

  25. John Galt: May will do her best to sabotage Brexit.

    And she will be a nightmare in EVERY other area of govt. She is both arrogant and stupid to the max.

    Worse than Camoron.

  26. As for the exihibitch they should have gagged her,tied her behind a milk float and dragged her all around the centre of Cambridge. While handing out cans of spray paint and inviting the public to get busy.

    For Rag Week.

  27. May is a careerist in my view. She declared for remain because she thought they would win. She did bugger all about it in case remain lost.
    As long as she thinks exit is in her best interests she’ll get it implemented.We’ll just have to keep reminding her.
    That said I’d prefer someone with their heart in it and preferably someone who’s spent years considering the alternatives to EU membership.

  28. The rule these days is that favoured candidates lose and lose badly.

    So goodbye Johnson and May.

  29. Putting my tinfoil hat on, what if May is VoteRemain’s backup plan?

    To assume the PM role, and then slowly remove any momentum from actually leaving?

  30. Johnnydub: I’ve been thinking along similar lines. Cameron resigning and leaving Article 50 to the next PM was his backup plan, as there’s some chance they’ll not trigger it.

    That way Brexit needs both an unlikely referendum win and a new PM that doesn’t bottle it.

    Overall, that stacks the odds pretty well; that and letting some non-Brit EU citizens vote (Eire, Malta, Cyprus).

  31. Re: Interested

    I think you’re right. Fond as I as of Gove, the Leave Tories need to get behind Leadsom.

    Its interesting they’re trying to stitch up the transition Gordon Brown style so they don’tr have to consult the Tory membership…

  32. May will surely delay and delay Article 50. If we want out, it’s going to have to be Leadsom and fingers crossed that she is what she appears to be.

  33. Johnnydub-

    As I suggested in another thread, I think Gove is a deliberate sacrificial candidate. Only he had the heft to knock Johnson out at the start as he did. He has no desire or intention of being Prime Minister. By drawing the ire (and fire) for being the “backstabber” it leaves a clear run for the “real” Brexit candidate, Leadsom.

    What said machinations now require is to make sure the final runoff goes to the Tory membership as May vs. Leadsom.

    If they succeed, Gove will get a plum cabinet job as a reward; possibly Deputy PM.

  34. At the Mail IanB’s old chum Paul Daycare is squealing for the Darling Dud of May. 88 MPs back her.

    But they are remainian trash who know she is a fellow Cultural Marxist and Camoron clone.

    She can’t stop Brexit because seeming to support it is her ticket in. After (as Pat above correctly observes) supporting remain cos they were favourite but keeping her gob as shut as possible in case the remolders lost. She would do her best to sabotage it.

    Someone as self-serving and duplicitous as that can never, ever be trusted. Ever. Never.

    She does not seem to live in the love of the common people–if Guidos commenters can be regarded as “common”. No snobbish jokes please.

    So I hope and prey that the ordinary Tory will kick this Camoron-lite cow out of bounds.

    And piss on scummy treasonous MPs.

  35. “And piss on scummy treasonous MPs.”

    The Clash ought to have worked that into the lyrics for “Rock the Casbah”.

  36. Bloke no Longer in Austria

    Fond as I as of Gove, the Leave Tories need to get behind Leadsom.

    Hur hur, “get behind” fnarr fnarr

  37. May is a vicious, low-achieving ditherer. But I fear she’s got it in the bag. Leadsom would be far better.

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