The Austrian Social Democratic Party SPÖ announced the wrong winner of its presidential election on Saturday. The voting results were exchanged in an Excel file, the party said.
Throughout the weekend, Hans Peter Doskozil (52), representative of the center wing of the left party, had been celebrating his victory. He thought he had received 53 percent of the vote at the party congress. But on Monday the party had to admit that it was precisely the left-oriented Andres Babler (50) who had won the election.
“Due to a technical error by an employee in an Excel file, the results were switched,” explained Michaela Grubesa, the chairman of the SPÖ’s electoral commission, on Monday. According to Austrian media, the error came to light when a journalist noticed a missing vote in the final result and took the matter to the party’s election commission. During the recount that followed, the capital error was discovered.
Doskozil spoke of a “low point for Austrian social democracy”, but congratulated Babler. The SPÖ, which has provided many Austrian chancellors in the past, has been in the opposition since 2017.
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