Austrian Elections & Politics 2.0 (Presidential runoff re-vote: 4 Dec. 2016)

[Antonio the Sixth]

This is utterly ridiculous.

[Tender Branson]

This is utterly ridiculous.

Maybe, but still interesting to watch.

Also funny how Judge Schnizer (who has an SPÖ background) seemed to hint today that he might back the FPÖ's challenge. He brought up a 1927 court case, which was similar to the case right now and asked the Green lawyers and the federal election commission guy how the almost hundred year old case was much different than today's case. The 1927 case led to a re-vote.

[Tender Branson]

Breaking News:

The Constitutional Court will release their ruling on the FPÖ's presidential runoff-challenge tomorrow, starting at 11:30am local time.

[Tender Branson]

Breaking News:

The Constitutional Court will release their ruling on the FPÖ's presidential runoff-challenge tomorrow, starting at 11:30am local time.

Don't know if the "Presse" newspaper has any insider information, but they are saying "everything points to the Court ordering a re-vote":

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/innenpolitik/5040762/Urteil-uber-die-Stichwahl-faellt-morgen

I would have thought that such a swift decision process by the Court would actually benefit the VdB camp ...

[jaichind]

Breaking News:

The Constitutional Court will release their ruling on the FPÖ's presidential runoff-challenge tomorrow, starting at 11:30am local time.

Don't know if the "Presse" newspaper has any insider information, but they are saying "everything points to the Court ordering a re-vote":

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/innenpolitik/5040762/Urteil-uber-die-Stichwahl-faellt-morgen

I would have thought that such a swift decision process by the Court would actually benefit the VdB camp ...

I do not know why FPÖ' is pushing this. Gives them a sore loser image.  I think they are better off accepting defeat and make FPÖ' look more like a reliable stakeholder which can only help them in 2018.

[DavidB.]

This is utterly ridiculous.

This.

[Tender Branson]

Breaking News:

The Constitutional Court will release their ruling on the FPÖ's presidential runoff-challenge tomorrow, starting at 11:30am local time.

derstandard.at is also reporting now that the Court will rule in favour of the FPÖ's challenge and order a re-vote.

This is based on sources who informed the newspaper in the evening.

It's unclear though if the whole runoff will be repeated or only in several districts ...

[Omega21]

Breaking News:

The Constitutional Court will release their ruling on the FPÖ's presidential runoff-challenge tomorrow, starting at 11:30am local time.

Don't know if the "Presse" newspaper has any insider information, but they are saying "everything points to the Court ordering a re-vote":

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/innenpolitik/5040762/Urteil-uber-die-Stichwahl-faellt-morgen

I would have thought that such a swift decision process by the Court would actually benefit the VdB camp ...

Nah, they are really tough.

As soon as they saw sloppiness in at least one District i think they leaned to a re-vote..

Especially because a re-vote is not expensive (16 mil is pocket change compared to what the Hand holding couple of Red-Green give out monthly to Economic migrants), and cant be the wrong decision as people will vote same as before..

[Tender Branson]

It's possible that the Court orders a re-vote in several districts, which were under investigation.

Of the 117 districts, about 15 had some forms of irregularities.

They are a mix of VdB- and Hofer-voting districts, so if the Court orders a re-vote Hofer would have to do significantly better in these districts to flip the Austria-wide results.

I have not done the math yet, but the districts probably need to vote with 70% for Hofer to flip the Austrian results to Hofer too ...

[Tender Branson]

The Court orders a Austria-wide re-vote of the runoff !!!

[Zanas]

Nuke this country already.

[jaichind]

The Court orders a Austria-wide re-vote of the runoff !!!

You got to be kidding me

[Antonio the Sixth]

No idea the Austrian Constitutional Court was such a joke.

[reciprocity]

Well it looks like we are entering unpredictable times. No one thought this would have happened.

[Diouf]

What a joke. As I understand it, there is still no evidence of any manipulation whatsoever. Are they then gonna have debates and everything again? Do the parties even have money for another campaign?

[Tender Branson]

What a joke. As I understand it, there is still no evidence of any manipulation whatsoever. Are they then gonna have debates and everything again? Do the parties even have money for another campaign?

I'm at work so I'll post more in the evening.

But yeah, new campaign, new debates and everything (but on a smaller scale) and yes the parties have the money for it.

Also, to the Court bashers: the CC virtually had no other choice because there were cases in which the postal votes were counted by people who did not belong to election commissions etc. and the total votes affected by this was ca. 80.000 - but VdB only won by 30.000 votes ...

[Dutch Conservative]

Its definitely not a joke. It's the only rational and logic decision the court could have made:
1. Were votingprocedures properly followed? NO.
2. Could the 'slopiness' (or better: violations) have changed the final result? YES
3. Did this damage the trustworthiness of the austrian democracy? YES

Conclusion: a full revote. Compliments for the Constitutional Court.

[Zanas]

It is however a reassuring testimony of this Constitutional Court's independence.

[DL]

What will be the date of the re-vote?

What are the chances that the outcome will be any different (I.e. That Hofer wins?)

[morgieb]

What a f**king farce.

[ZuWo]

A good decision. Sloppiness and irregularities have no place in a proper vote counting process.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Hilarious. Who knew that an election for head ribbon cutter in Austria could have such twists and turns?

[Hash]

What an absolutely ridiculous decision.

[Tender Branson]

Funny that the outcry here on the Forum is bigger even than among Austrians ...

Even VdB himself said he really respects the ruling and is looking forward to the re-vote, which he said he'll win.

Turns out the vote counting process was a bit more flawed than we thought and the Court simply was not happy with a democratic vote count which was only done 98% the right way. Like the Court's President said, democracy and the voters deserve 100% accurate counting and nothing less than that.

The new election will take place at the end of September or early October (the government will announce the date next week).

[Tender Branson]

Here's the historical ruling (which will also lead to a reform of the election law, so that it will become like 100% accurate):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zofj2odRdZ8