Freedom Party candidate leads in first round of Austrian presidential race

The latest exit poll showed Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPO) candidate Norbert Hofer is the leading runner of the first round of the Austrian presidential election on Sunday.

The latest exit poll showed that Hofer leads in the first round of the race with 35.3 percent of the votes, and will enter the runoff on May 22.

But it is still not clear who is to win the second place of the tight competition.

The poll showed that the Green party-backed Alexander van der Bellen got 21.3 percent of votes and the only female candidate Irmgard Griss won 18.9 percent.

The current ruling parties candidates, Rudolf Hundstorfer of the Social Democratic Party (SPO) and the center-right People's Party (OVP)candidate Andreas Khol only got 10.9 percent and 11.2 percent of the votes respectively.

Richard Lugner, an 83-year-old famous businessman in Austria, got only 2.3 percent of the votes.

Source: XINHUA