VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen secured a second six-year term in office by obtaining more than 50% of the vote in an election on Sunday to avoid a runoff, initial projections issued soon after voting closed showed.
A projection by pollster SORA for national broadcaster ORF based on a partial vote count put Van der Bellen, a 78-year-old former leader of the Greens, on 54.6% with a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points. His nearest rival was far-right Freedom Party candidate Walter Rosenkranz on 18.9%.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Susan Fenton)
