Voters prepare to elect new president in Austria

World Today

Austrians will vote in their new president in an election on Sunday. It’s Europe’s first national poll since Donald Trump won the U.S. election – and a fellow populist candidate is in the running.

CCTV’s Guy Henderson reports.
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Austria’s far-right Freedom Party candidate, Norbert Hofer has tapped into that rich vein of discontent – spreading through the western world. A populist who said he speaks for the ignored.

Back in May, that message left him just 31,000 votes behind his rival, Independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen.

Irregularities found in mail-in ballots annulled the outcome and led to Sunday’s re-match.

Since then political landscapes have been ploughed up and re-sowed. Polls now show the vote too close to call. Van der Bellen is defiant in his liberal tone.

Neither of the parties that actually govern Austria made the final round.