Throughout the build-up to the 2002 German election, the Social Democrats and the Green Party trailed the centre-right candidate Edmund Stoiber until the catastrophe caused by rising floodwater in Germany led to an improvement in his polling numbers. Furthermore, his popular opposition to a war in Iraq dominated campaigning in the run-up to the polls. At 22 September vote, he secured another four-year term, with a narrow nine-seat majority (down from 21).