Austria's presidential election was too close to call on Sunday, meaning postal ballots were set to determine whether a Eurosceptic anti-immigration candidate would become the European Union's first far-right head of state, NBC News reported.
The direct votes gave right-winger Norbert Hofer 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent for Alexander Van der Bellen, a Greens politician running as an independent. But final projections that included still-to-be-counted absentee ballots showed a statistical dead heat of 50 percent each.
A victory for Hofer would be a landmark triumph for resurgent populist parties across Europe that have capitalized on Europe's migration crisis and widespread dissatisfaction with traditional parties of power.
It would be all the more remarkable for being in a prosperous country with low unemployment, where two centrist parties have dominated since it emerged shattered from World War II after its annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938.
