2016 saw the most turbulent and longest presidential election in the history of Austria. Norbert Hofer of the right-wing populist FPÖ and the candidate Alexander van der Bellen, who was nominated by the Greens, entered the run-off. But its result was contested by the FPÖ because of irregularities in ballot counting. The Austrian Constitutional Court decided that the election had to be repeated.
But then there was a breakdown with the election envelopes, some of whose flaps did not close tightly enough. The re-election was postponed and finally, on 4 December 2016, Alexander van der Bellen was elected Federal President in the “Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung”.
During this time I was project manager for the election-related content on FM4. This also included an interview with the run-off candidates, where we played a short “Boxers or Briefs” at the end.
