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German election mandate still in question
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-19 09:30
Conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party won the most votes
in German elections Sunday but fell short of a clear mandate to govern,
according to official results. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder staged a dramatic
comeback and proclaimed that he should head the next government.
A combination photo
shows German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of the Social Democratic Party
(SDP) and Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as
they react after first exit polls in the Germany's general election
at party headquarters in Berlin September 18, 2005. Merkel's conservatives
were the leading party in Sunday's German election but her centre-right
alliance lacks a parliamentary majority, exit polls indicated as voting
ended in Sunday's election. [Reuters] |
The inconclusive result made it likely that Germany's next government
would be weakened because of the narrow vote margin and difficulties in forming
a coalition.
If Merkel is to become Germany's first female chancellor, she now must find a
majority in a coalition that would likely force her to water down finance reform
plans. And such a deal might also lead to a dampening of her strong opposition
to Turkish membership of the European Union.
The vote centered on different visions of Germany's role in the world and how
to fix its sputtering economy. Schroeder touted the country's role as a European
leader and counterbalance to America, while Merkel pledged to reform the economy
and strengthen relations with Washington.
With 298 of 299 districts declaring, the results showed Merkel's Christian
Democrats party leading with 35.2 percent of the vote compared to 34.3 percent
for Schroeder's Social Democrats. Voting in the final district, Dresden, was
delayed until Oct. 2 because of the death of a candidate. But that outcome was
not expected to affect the final result.
The outcome gave Merkel's party 225 seats, three more than the Social
Democrats; the Free Democrats got 61, the Left Party 54 and the Greens 51.
Merkel's preferred coalition partners — the pro-business Free Democrats — had
9.8 percent, leaving such an alliance short of outright victory. The Greens, the
Social Democrats' current governing partner, had 8.1 percent; together, the two
parties failed to reach a majority, heralding the end of Schroeder's
seven-year-old government.
The Left Party had 8.7 percent of the vote, but
Schroeder said he would not work with them. The overall election turnout was
77.7 percent.
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