Hans Peter Doskozil seemed to have won the election as SPÖ chairman. But there was a glitch when counting the votes: Doskozil’s competitor Babeler actually got the most votes.
The Austrian Social Democrats made an unprecedented mistake in the party leader election at the weekend. The opposition party SPÖ announced that it was not Hans Peter Doskozil, who had been chosen as the new party leader, who won the election, but his competitor Andreas Babler.
Error was only discovered by accident
The votes were swapped during the count, said the head of the election commission, Michaela Grubesa. The error happened when transferring to an Excel spreadsheet. In fact, Doskozil only got 280 votes, but Babler got 317 votes.
The error was accidentally discovered during a recount on Monday. It had become necessary to explain why a voice was missing. This turned out to be invalid. The party apologized to Doskozil, said Grubesa. The new party leader is now Traiskirchen Mayor Babler.
“A low point for them Austrian social democracy”
The now defeated Doskozil said about the counting error: “This is certainly a low point for Austrian social democracy up to a certain point”.
The former Minister of Defense and Prime Minister of Burgenland admitted defeat. “It is undisputed to take note of the election result in this way,” said the politician known for his restrictive migration policy. He congratulated Babler, who is assigned to the left wing of the party.