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Vienna /Â AFP
Austria’s highest court began a public hearing on Monday on a legal challenge to May’s presidential election brought by the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), whose candidate only narrowly lost. The Constitutional Court’s open session was due to last four days and hear 90 witnesses. It aims to rule before the scheduled swearing-in of the election winner, Alexander Van der Bellen, on July 8. Van der Bellen beat FPOe candidate Norbert Hofer in May 22’s runoff election by just 30,863 votes, narrowly preventing Austria becoming the first EU country with a far-right president.
But on June 8, the FPOe launched a legal challenge to the result, alleging numerous procedural irregularities that party boss Heinz-Christian Strache said had cost Hofer the election. Potentially the most explosive claim is that some 60,000 postal votes were counted by people not authorised to do so. This might be sufficient for the court to rule the entire election has to be held again. If as a result Van der Bellen cannot be sworn in on July 8, outgoing president Heinz Fischer will be replaced on an interim basis.