An Austrian court just overturned the presidential election narrowly lost by a far-right candidate

The Austrian Constitutional Court declared the presidential election in Austria invalid because of numerous irregularities and the whole election will now have to take place a second time.

The court found there had been irregularities in 94 out of 117 voting districts, German newspaper BILD reports.

The election, which took place in May, was narrowly lost - by less than one percentage point - by far-right Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer.

The Freedom Party had challenged the election results, saying that postal votes had not been mishandled.

The term in office of the outgoing President Heinz Fischer (independent), will end on July 8. His duties of head of state will provisionally be fulfilled by Parliament President Doris Bures (Social Democrats), and her two deputies Karlheinz Kopf and Norbert Hofer.

Back in May, the Interior Ministry had given Alexander van der Bellen (The Greens), 50.3 percent of the vote, compared to 49.7 percent for Hofer, who had run on an anti-immigration platform.

If elected, Hofer would become the first far-right head of state of an EU country, although strictly speaking, Austria's presidency is a ceremonial role. Nonetheless, Hofer had already said before the election that if he won, he would try to extend his limited powers.

The new election is expected to be held in September or October, according to the BBC.

During the investigation, 90 witnesses were called to clarify the allegations. Numerous election officials admitted in interviews that they had broken some laws when counting the approximately 740,000 valid absentee ballots.

According to the Interior Ministry, many constituencies had started counting the absentee ballots on election night, when they were only legally allowed to do so the next day.