Postal votes to decide outcome of neck-and-neck Austrian presidency race

With all direct ballots counted in Austria's presidential election, a right-wing politician is in a neck-and-neck race with a challenger whose views stand in direct opposition to his rival's anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic message.

Both right-winger Norbert Hofer and Alexander Van der Bellen, a Greens politician running as an independent, each have 50% support on Sunday, with direct votes tallied and absentee votes to be counted by Monday.

With 4.48 million direct votes cast, the nearly 900,000 absentee ballots issued will likely make them the vote decider.

Candidates backed by the dominant Social Democratic and centrist People's Party were eliminated in last month's first round, which means neither party would hold the presidency for the first time since the end of the war.

That reflects disillusionment with the status quo.