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Van der Bellen leads Austrian presidential election with 54.6% — preliminary count

He is followed by the right-wing populist Austrian Freedom Party candidate Walter Rosenkranz (18.9%) and the independent candidate Tassilo Wallentin (8.5%)

VIENNA, October 9. /TASS/. Austria’s incumbent President Alexander Van der Bellen, is gaining 55.4% of the vote at the presidential elections and can count on winning in the first round. This according to the preliminary count of votes the ORF TV channel presented on Sunday.

The results will be changing insignificantly as the count of votes continues. If Van der Bellen receives more than 50% of the votes, he will win in the first round.

He is followed by the right-wing populist Austrian Freedom Party candidate Walter Rosenkranz (18.4%) and the independent candidate Tassilo Wallentin (8.4%).

Dominik Wlazny, leader of the left-centrist Beer Party, received 8.2% of the votes. In total, seven people put forward their candidacies, which became a record for the country.

Austria is a parliamentary republic, where the President performs mainly representative functions: he speaks on behalf of the country in the international arena and signs state treaties. He approves the candidates for the Chancellor and other members of the Cabinet, has the right to dismiss the head of government and the entire cabinet. The President is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. More than 6.4 million people have the right to vote in Austria.

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