Voting has started in Austria’s snap general election, after a video sting scandal in May collapsed the coalition government.
Opinion polls suggest former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s conservative People’s Party is on track to win the most votes – but will need a coalition partner.
The Social Democrats, the far-right Freedom Party, the Greens and the liberals are also in the race.
Coalition talks are widely expected to be difficult, and may last for weeks.
Polling stations across Austria will open at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and close at 17:00.
The scandal toppled Mr. Kurz’s government, and the former leader of his coalition partner the Freedom Party (FPÖ), Heinz-Christian Strache.
Mr. Strache, Austria’s Vice-Chancellor, was caught on video promising government contracts to a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch.
The scandal was labelled “Ibiza-gate”, after the Spanish island where the video was recorded.
Sebastian Kurzis the son of a secretary and a teacher, he became active in the ÖVP at the age of 16.
As a law student in Vienna he was elected chairman of the People’s Party youth wing. He quit his studies in 2011 to become a junior interior minister, rising to foreign minister in 2013 at the age of 27.
Two years later he presented a 50-point plan to improve the integration of immigrants. However, he was full of praise for Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and claimed credit for closing the Balkan migrant route in 2016.
Elected chairman in May 2017, he rebranded the party as the Turquoise Movement then served as chancellor from December 2017 to May 2019, when the Ibizagate brought down the coalition.
