TWTR Twitter Inc

BERLIN—Austria's Constitutional Court ordered a rerun of the runoff round of country's presidential election, giving Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer a second chance of becoming the first right-wing populist head of state in postwar Western Europe.

"The runoff presidential election must be completely repeated in all of Austria," the spokesman for the Constitutional Court, Christian Neuwirth, wrote on his official Twitter page on Friday.

The court found law violations in "many districts" in how the May 22 second-round vote was carried out, Mr. Neuwirth said. "It is for the [Constitutional Court] completely clear that the laws that regulate an election must be applied rigorously."

The anti-immigrant, populist Freedom Party had challenged the election result earlier this month, alleging "catastrophic" violations of election law, especially in how mail-in ballots were processed.

A pro-refugee candidate, Alexander Van der Bellen, narrowly beat Mr. Hofer in the May 22 vote.

Write to Anton Troianovski at anton.troianovski@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 01, 2016 07:25 ET (11:25 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.