Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka on Friday apologised for the “technical shortcomings”.
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Due to an issue with the glue that holds together the envelopes of the postal ballots the Austrian government is considering postponing the Austrian presidential election re-run. He then suggested that since elections could not be properly carried out “because of an apparent production problem”, it was his responsibility to quickly consider postponement. “The experts are involved in the case”, Marakovits said, adding that the decision the potential postponement was likely to be announced the following week.
Norbert Hofer, the far-right candidate of the Freedom Party (FPOe), said in a video on Facebook that he now expects the vote to be postponed, although he did not say until when. One solution proposed was that the election officials could travel to places like retirement homes or hospitals to conduct the votes in person if the voters are unable to go to the polling booths themselves.
Both candidates – the anti-immigration Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer and former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen – said they expect the date to be postponed from October 2 after the interior ministry said on Friday that it’s considering this option.
The postponement is a further embarrassment for Austria, a wealthy and advanced Western democracy and European Union member, and for the government of Chancellor Christian Kern.
The May 22 vote, a run-off after a first round in April, saw independent ecologist Van der Bellen, 72, narrowly beat the softly-spoken Hofer, 45, by just 31,000 votes.
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The far right is ahead in Austria’s presidential race, according to opinion polls which predict a win for the anti-immigration candidate that would be a watershed for populists across Europe who have capitalised on the migration crisis.
