Postal ballots to decide Austrian presidential election

Postal ballots will decide Austria's presidential election after polling station results from Sunday's vote gave the far-right candidate a slender lead.

“Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party is slightly ahead of his rival, Alexander Van der Bellen,”the interior ministry said on Sunday.

Hofer had 51.9% and Van der Bellen - an independent candidate who is supported by the Green Party - had 48.1% after the final count of votes cast at polling stations, the ministry confirmed.

If elected, Mr Hofer would be the first far-right head of state in the EU. According to the BBC, support for the Freedom Party has risen in recent years because deep frustration with the established parties of the centre left and centre right.

The presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz, have both expressed concern over a Hofer victory.

A key campaign issue was Europe's migrant crisis, which has seen asylum-seeker numbers soar, with about 90,000 people claiming asylum in Austria last year, equivalent to about 1% of the Austrian population. The Freedom Party ran an anti-immigration campaign, which boosted the party forward as fears about the migrant crisis grows.

Some 750,000 postal votes from roughly 12% of Austria's 6.4m voters are due to be counted on Monday.

Austria's election has revealed a profound split over which direction the nation should take.