Austrian far-right challenges election result

Alexander Van der Bellen defeated Hofer, preventing Austria becoming the first European Union country with a far-right president

Austria's anti-immigration Freedom Party plunged the country into uncharted political territory, on Thursday, with a legal challenge to last month's presidential election, just four weeks before the winner is due to be sworn in.

"We are not sore losers. This is about protecting the very foundations of democracy... The extent of irregularities is more than terrifying," FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache told a news conference.

"You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to have a bad gut feeling about this whole election... Without these glitches and irregularities (FPOe candidate Norbert) Hofer could have become president."

Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent backed by the Greens, defeated Hofer in May 22's runoff by just 30,863 votes, narrowly preventing Austria becoming the first European Union country with a far-right president.

Preliminary results released the evening of the vote had given a narrow lead to gun enthusiast Hofer, 54, presented as the friendly face of the FPOe but who is highly critical of Islam and the EU.

However after some 700,000 postal votes — a record number — were counted, Van der Bellen, 72, was declared the winner of the largely ceremonial but coveted presidency the next day.

The FPOe has cried foul — Strache's popular Facebook page has been inundated with conspiracy theories — and authorities are already investigating several complaints.

However, they concern postal votes being opened for counting too early and are not thought likely to change the result.

But Strache said the FPOe has documented problems in 94 of Austria's 117 constituencies, including postal votes being opened too early or "non-Austrians" or under-16s casting ballots.

The constitutional court has four weeks to decide if the incidents in the FPOe's 150-page submission stand up and if so, whether they could change the result.

This could make for a tense wait with Van der Bellen set to be sworn in on July 8.