Germany heads to the polls [View all]

[DesertRat]

Germans are voting in a nationwide election that is expected to deliver a fourth term to Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is also expected to see the right-wing populist AfD party enter parliament for the first time.

Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time (0600 UTC) on Sunday at 88,000 locations across Germany.

Some 61.5 million people are eligible to cast their ballots in the long-awaited election, in which Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), along with its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), is projected to win the largest share of votes.

Opinion polls put the CDU/CSU bloc's popularity at 34-36 percent, ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD)'s 21-22 percent - a lead that suggests Merkel's victory is all but assured. If the polls are to be believed, the 2017 election will also see a far-right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), win seats in the Bundestag.

http://www.dw.com/en/germany-heads-to-the-polls/a-40655495