Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent candidate who formerly a member of both the Austrian Greens and the Social Democratic, placed second.

The constitution grants the president the power to appoint the chancellor and, by extension, federal cabinet ministers, Supreme Court justices, military officers, and most major bureaucrats.

The most likely candidate of the Social Democratic Party was considered to be Labour Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer, though President of the National Council Doris Bures, former Chancellor Franz Vranitzky and former undersecretary for EU affairs Brigitte Ederer [de] were also mentioned.

[13] On 7 January 2016, ÖVP leader Reinhold Mitterlehner announced that Erwin Pröll, the Landeshauptmann of Lower Austria, would not be running.

President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Christoph Leitl only said he would not comment before the announcement by the party leadership on 10 January 2016.

[20] Norbert Hofer, who serves as the Third President of the National Council, had been considered the most likely Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) candidate.

[26] In mid-January, Vienna Vice-Mayor Johann Gudenus and former FPÖ leader and former Vice-Chancellor Norbert Steger were also mentioned as possible candidates.

[27] On 19 January 2016, author and Middle East/migration pundit Karin Kneissl was mentioned as being recruited by the FPÖ to run,[28] which she quickly declined.

[31] Amid strong FPÖ-internal dissent, there were rumours the party leadership had been forced to reconsider, and that Hofer was now the most likely option, after all,[32] with Gudenus also still in play.

The NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum leader Strolz stated that they would consider giving him the same support as Griss, depending on the same kind of hearing she went through.

[39] Independent candidate Irmgard Griss, a former Supreme Court of Justice judge and its president, declared her candidacy on 17 December 2015.

[40] NEOS said they would support Griss and any other independent candidates indirectly, and voiced their concerns over the strong partisan politicization of the presidential office and the election campaign.

[44] He announced his candidacy on 10 February 2016, citing a poll carried out for him by the Humaninstitut which showed him on 10% (behind Van der Bellen on 27%, Hundstorfer on 18%, Hofer on 17%, Griss at 15% and Khol on 13%).

[50] Further independent candidates who announced their runs were Gustav Jobstmann,[51] Thomas Unden,[52] Gernot Pointner,[53] Alois Merz,[54] Georg Zakrajsek of the Interessengemeinschaft Liberales Waffenrecht Österreich,[55] Karin Kolland,[56] Robert Marschall [de] of the EU Exit Party,[57] Thomas Reitmayer of the Austrian version of the satirical political party Die PARTEI,[58] Erich Körner-Lakatos and Peter Fetz.

At the half-way point for collecting signatures, it appeared that only the five major candidates and possibly Lugner and Awadalla had a chance of making the ballot.

[61] By 16 March 2016, two days before the deadline, the five main candidates had submitted their signatures, with Awadalla still having outside chances to make it and Lugner likely to fall short.

[65] As expected by many analysts, Lugner claimed on 22 March 2016 to have made up the deficit, with Marschall clearly failing,[66] having gathered only 1,150 signatures.

[69][70] Eligible voters by state: Hofer, the Freedom Party candidate, led in the first round of the election on 24 April with an unexpectedly strong 35 percent of the vote.

[71] Van der Bellen came second with 21 percent, and since Hofer failed to gain an absolute majority the election proceeded to a run-off vote between the two, scheduled for 22 May.

[71][need quotation to verify] The provisional result on 22 May gave Hofer 51.9% of the votes, not counting the absentee ballots, which were expected[by whom?]

The Kronen Zeitung reported some election irregularities, such as a 146.9% turnout in Waidhofen an der Ybbs and another impossible result in Linz.

[88] On 12 September the Federal Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Sobotka, announced that due to faulty glue in the voting envelopes, the rerun of the second round was postponed until 4 December 2016.