A photo-finish presidential election which saw the Green party snatch victory from the insurgent Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is now being challenged after irregularities were detected in 94 of 117 electoral districts. The election was regarded as a watershed moment in European politics, as the final-round vote to select the most senior role in Austrian politics was, for the first time since the 1940s, from neither of the establishment parties featured. Yet even before the count finished the candidacy of Left-Green veteran politician Alexander Van der Bellen was embroiled in a postal vote scandal. While reports of some regions in Austria seeing voter turnouts of hundreds of per cent were initially dismissed as down to computer error and not reflecting the actual numbers of votes cast, there is genuine concern about the integrity of the absentee postal voting system. Austria’s Kronen Zeitung reports some 570,000 voting cards could be affected — and the election was carried by just 30,000 votes, or around 0.6 per cent. FPÖ party leader Heinz-Christian Strache said there were problems — “illegalities” — with these postal ballots in 94 of 117 districts. In addition to these problems, the party also claims to have evidence of citizens under the