VIENNA, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Austrian voting authorities have issued a record 889,193 absentee ballots ahead of Sunday's lower house elections, the interior ministry stated on Friday.

This means about 14 percent of the nation's 6.4 million eligible voters have applied for an absentee voting card, about a third more than the last election in 2013.

Just under 60,000 of the absentee ballots were sent outside of Austria, almost double the 34,031 sent out in 2013.

The absentee ballots give voters the option of either sending their vote card in via post, handing it in in person ahead of the election, or voting on election day at any polling booth in the country.

It is anticipated that about 780,000 absentee votes will not have been counted at the close of polling booths early Sunday evening, which means any close results may not be decided until postal votes are counted.

Most of these, along with votes handed in outside of regular constituencies, will be counted on Monday, while the remainder will be tallied in a final vote count on Thursday. Enditem

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