(ANSA-AFP) - VIENNA, 12 OTT - Vienna's incumbent mayor Michael Ludwig kept his centre-left party in the top spot at municipal elections in the Austrian capital Sunday, exit polls showed, while support for the far right plummeted over a devastating scandal. With 41.7 percent of the vote, Ludwig's SPOe gained 2.1 points compared with 2015, leaving them free to renew their coalition with the third-placed greens or forge a new alliance with the conservatives or liberals. The centre-left party ruled out any deal with the far right FPOe, internally divided and punished by voters after last year's publication of hidden-camera footage showing then-leader Heinz-Christian Strache discussing shady backroom deals with a woman claiming to be a wealthy Russian. The FPOe's share of the vote collapsed by 23.3 points, reaching just 7.5 percent, while Strache's new party gleaned just 3.6 percent. The exit poll by the SORA institute had a margin of error of two percent, higher than in 2015 because of the larger number of people voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. (ANSA-AFP).