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 almost all votes cast except postal ballots.
The 78-year-old 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, according to Reuters.
With 95% of the votes cast in polling stations counted, a projection by pollster SORA for ORF based on that count put Van der Bellen on 56.1% with a margin of error of 1.1 percentage points. His nearest rival was the FPO’s Walter Rosenkranz on 17.9%.
Source: Jordan News Agency