Austria's presidential election to be decided by mail-in ballots

Austria's presidential election will come down to the 750,000 mail-in ballots left to be counted.

The country's interior minister said after counting the ballots cast at polling stations on Sunday, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party has a slight edge over independent Alexander Van der Bellen, with 51.9 percent of the vote compared to 48.1 percent. The mail-in ballots account for 12 percent of Austria's 6.4 million voters, and they will be counted Monday.

If elected, Hofer would be the first far-right head of state in the European Union, BBC News reports. Last year, 90,000 people claimed asylum in Austria, the equivalent of 1 percent of the country's population, and the Freedom Party ran an anti-immigration campaign. In Austria, the presidency is primarily a ceremonial post.

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