Austria held a presidential election back in May but the country’s Constitutional Court ordered it had to be repeated because of problems with counting postal ballots. The re-run was scheduled to take place on October 2.
 
After the new issue was reported, the probable dates for the presidential election are either November 27 or December 4, Mr. Sobotka told reporters in Vienna, adding he was open to extending the vote to citizens who had reached the voting age of 16 since the spring. Postponing the re-run will require a change to Austria's electoral law.
 
Back in May, Austria came close to become the first western European country to elect a far-right head of state since World War Two. Norbert Hofer of the anti-migrant Freedom Party (FPO) lost by some 31.000 votes, which stands for less than one percentage point, to independent Alexander Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green Party.
 
Consequently the FPO challenged the result and the Constitutional Court ordered the run with judges citing irregularities in the way some postal ballots were processed.
 
Norbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party has led recent polls. An eventual win will definitely shock the European Union, that has been struggling to poorly address the refugee crisis.