According to the preliminary results of the presidential election in Austria, without votes sent by mail yet counted, the current president Alexander van der Bellen is convincingly won the first round with 54.6 percent of the votes received, thereby avoiding a second round and reaching a second six-year term.
In second place is the candidate of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) Walter Rosenkranz with 19.10 percent, the third is the independent candidate, lawyer Tasilo Valentin, and the fourth is the leader of the Beer Party Dominik Vlazny.
The fifth is Gerald Gross with six percent of the votes, the sixth leader of the party “People, Freedom, Basic Rights” (MFG) Michael Brine with 2.20 percent of the votes, while the last place is the shoe manufacturer Heinrich Staudinger with 1.60 percent of the votes.
As it was announced, the turnout was 52.50 percent, and the ballots that arrived by mail, which are slightly less than one million, or 15 percent of the electorate, have yet to be counted.
Those votes, however, will not change the fact that Van der Bellen won the first round, but will change the situation in the third position, as it is estimated that Dominik Vlazny could threaten Valentin.