Austrian party reverses leadership result after spreadsheet hiccup

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s main center-left opposition party has reversed the result of its weekend leadership election, announcing that a computer error originally led to the wrong candidate being declared the winner. Andreas Babler, the mayor of the town of Traiskirchen, becomes the Social Democrats’ new leader as the party tries to turn around its fortunes ahead of a national election expected next year. At a party convention on Saturday, Hans Peter Doskozil — the governor of the southeastern Burgenland province had narrowly been declared the winner. At a hastily called news conference on Monday, the head of the party’s electoral commission said officials discovered that “the result was reversed” after votes were incorrectly entered into a spreadsheet.