German Chancellor and CDU Party leader Angela Merkel casts her vote at a polling station on Sunday in Berlin during general elections (AFP photo)

BERLIN — Germans voted on Sunday in a general election expected to hand Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term while the hard-right nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party was expected to make history by winning its first seats in parliament.

Europe’s most powerful woman appears all but assured of winning another term, matching the 16-year reign of her mentor Helmut Kohl.

Surveys suggest her conservative CDU/CSU alliance has a double-digit lead over its nearest rivals, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Martin Schulz.

Polling stations in Europe’s top economy will close at 1600 GMT, with exit polls due out immediately afterwards.

With four other parties predicted to clear the 5-per cent threshold to enter the Bundestag, the highest number since the 1950s, it could take months of coalition wrangling before the next government takes shape.

But mainstream parties have already ruled out talking to the anti-Islam, anti-immigration AfD, which is polling at 11 to 13 per cent and could emerge as Germany’s third-strongest party.

Alarmed by the prospect of what Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel branded “real Nazis” entering the Bundestag for the first time since World War II, politicians used their final days of campaigning to urge voters to reject the AfD.

“This Alternative for Germany is no alternative. They are a shame for our nation,” former European Parliament chief Schulz told a rally on Friday.

The latest surveys put support for Merkel’s conservative block at 34-36 per cent, with the SPD trailing at 21-22 per cent — which would translate into a historic low for the party.

Despite bracing for a drubbing, Schulz was all smiles as he and his wife cast their ballot in his western hometown of Wuerselen.

Preliminary figures indicated that turnout was up compared to the 2013 election in major cities including Berlin, Munich and Hamburg.

Merkel, 63, whose campaign events were regularly disrupted by jeering AfD supporters, said at her final stump speech in the southern city of Munich that “the future of Germany will definitely not be built with whistles and hollers”.

Observers say a strong showing by the AfD, which has capitalised on anger over the influx of a million migrants and refugees since 2015, would hit Germany like a bombshell.

“If the AfD becomes the leading opposition party, they will challenge key themes,” said Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin. “It will very much change the tone of debate in parliament.”

Aside from the populist noise, the past two months of campaigning have been widely criticised as lacklustre, with few hot-button issues dividing the main contenders.

Commentators say Merkel’s reassuring message of stability and prosperity has resonated in greying Germany, where more than half of the 61 million voters are aged 52 or older.

Schulz, on the other hand, has struggled to gain traction with his calls for a more socially just Germany at a time when the economy is humming and employment is at a record low.

The SPD has also found it hard to shine after four years as the junior partner in Merkel’s left-right “grand coalition”, marked by broad agreement on major topics, from foreign policy to migration.

In the final stretch, the more outspoken Schulz told voters to reject Merkel’s “sleeping-pill politics” and vote against “another four years of stagnation and lethargy”.

Germany’s best-selling daily Bild at the weekend said 61-year-old Schulz found his voice as he neared the finish line, and praised him for “fighting until the end”.

“Germany doesn’t just need a chancellor. It also needs an opposition leader. Schulz has started to sound like one,” the newspaper wrote.

The CDU and the SPD have signalled they are not keen to continue their loveless marriage, and many rank-and-file SPD members believe the traditional working-class party would benefit from a stint in opposition to rekindle its fighting spirit.

This would leave the presumed winner Merkel in need of new coalition partners — possibly the liberal and pro-business Free Democrats, who are hoping for a comeback after crashing out of parliament four years ago.

Another potential partner would be the ecologist and left-leaning Greens Party, which, however, starkly differs with the FDP on issues from climate change to migration policy.

Pundits have pointed out that a significant number of voters remained undecided until the last minute, suggesting the final outcome could throw up some surprises depending on turnout.

In the western city of Frankfurt, 66-year-old Harald said he was still unsure who to vote for as he headed home from his night shift as a security guard in the leafy Westend suburb.

“I will make up my mind once I’m in the polling booth. You can forget about the AfD,” he told AFP. </s> BERLIN — Angela Merkel won a fourth term as German chancellor in a federal election that lifted a far-right party into parliament for the first time since the immediately after World War II, according to exit polls that point to growing polarization in Europe's biggest economy.

Merkel's Christian Democrat-led bloc took 32.5 percent to defeat Martin Schulz's Social Democrats, whose 20 percent is its worst result since the war, the exit polls for national broadcasters ARD and ZDF showed Sunday. Merkel's bloc dropped about 9 percentage points from the last election in 2013 to record its worst result since 1949.

The principal beneficiary was the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which joins the pro-business Free Democrats, the Greens and the post-communist Left in the Bundestag after it channeled voter rage at Merkel for allowing 1.3 million migrants to enter the country since 2015. The AfD's 13.5 percent in the exit poll means it stands to become the main opposition party in the lower house, the Bundestag.

"This is a bitter defeat for the SPD, and at the same time it's a historic watershed in our democracy," Thomas Oppermann, the Social Democrats' caucus chairman, said on ARD television. The SPD has decided to go into opposition and not renew the coalition with Merkel's party that has governed for the past four years, he said.

The result offers Merkel just one route to govern: adding the environmentalist Greens to a coalition with the Free Democrats, her party's traditional allies with whom she governed from 2009 to 2013, in a so-called Jamaica coalition —so named as the party colors of the CDU/CSU, the Greens and FDP match those of the country's flag. While it's a combination previously untested at national level, such a government was formed this year in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, and the chancellor has kept tabs on the region's progress ever since.

"Jamaica is doable," Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU state prime minster of Saarland, told broadcaster ZDF.

Even as she faces the most splintered parliament in modern German history, Merkel's record-equaling fourth consecutive victory in a national election marks a revival of sorts of her political fortunes from the depths of the refugee crisis. It puts Germany's first female leader and the first from the formerly communist east on track to match Helmut Kohl's record of 16 years in office.

The first task for Merkel is to forge a coalition that enables her to govern, a process that's likely to take months. Once a government is in place, Merkel will face huge global expectations, such as shoring up the eurozone together with France, setting Europe's tone in its dealings with the U.S. under President Donald Trump, and dealing with the diesel-emissions crisis that threatens Germany's dominance in producing luxury cars.

The better-than-forecast performance of the Free Democrats allows them to re-enter the Bundestag after a four-year absence.

Schulz's defeat to Merkel means the Social Democrats haven't won an election since 2002, and raises question about his future as party leader. Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, appeared to be a formidable contender when the SPD pulled virtually even with Merkel's bloc soon after he entered the race in January. </s> Angela Merkel has won a fourth term as German Chancellor, but with her party’s lead in parliament cut and the country facing a surge in support for the far right.

Exit polls predicted the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would become the third-largest party in the national parliament, the Bundestag, as German voters delivered a stinging blow to the traditional parties.

Merkel’s CDU and its sister CSU had their share of the vote slashed. Germany’s oldest party, the SPD, which had been in a “grand coalition” with Merkel, was consigned to opposition.

Addressing her supporters, a subdued Merkel said the result gave her a “mandate” to govern but that the AfD’s success would require “thorough analysis” to understand the concerns of their voters.

SPD leader Martin Schulz said the result was a “bitter disappointment” and the party would return to opposition. He lamented the success of the AfD, adding that it was a watershed moment.

The exit polls showed Merkel’s CDU/CSU group would be the largest in the Bundestag, but with its lead cut to 33.5% of the seats. The SPD fell to 21%, a result met with shock at the party’s headquarters. AfD is predicted to become the first far-right party to win seats in the Bundestag since 1960, with about 13% of seats, according to FORSA polling institute data commissioned by German public broadcaster ZDF.

Addressing her supporters, Merkel pledged to try and understand the concerns of voters who lent their support to the AfD. “There’s a big new challenge for us, and that is the entry of the AfD in the Bundestag,” she said. “We want to win back AfD voters.”

The success of the AfD was declared as a “political earthquake” by Georg Pazderski, the local party leader in Berlin.

Figures show 21.5% of East Germans, including Berlin, voted for the far-right party, while 11% voted for the AfD in the West, according to exit polls done by Infratest Dimap.

Founded in 2013, the AfD has enjoyed a surge of support for its anti-immigration stance and its opposition to Merkel’s decision to open the country’s borders to over a million migrants, mainly those fleeing violence and persecution from the Middle East.

The AfD, which has also been accused of Islamophobia, garnered staunch support in east Germany where it became the second largest party after the CDU.

“For the first time, we have a conservative party right beside our Christian Democrats and this is because they moved more and more to the left and we moved into the vacuum,” Pazderski told CNN

“It’s a good day for democracy for Germany and for Europe.”

Meanwhile, Alice Weidel, a leading AfD politician, told supporters she will keep her promise to call for a committee to investigate Merkel’s decision to allow more than a million refugees into the country in 2015.

She had repeatedly claimed that Merkel should be “punished” for her decisions during the refugee crisis.

“People have given us their trust and we will keep our promise,” she said.

With the SPD refusing to rejoin a coalition and no party willing to work with the AfD, it leaves Merkel with few options for a coalition.

The exit polls would suggest that Merkel may be forced to make a deal with the Green Party and FDP, to create a so-called “Jamaican coalition” — with the green and and yellow of the two parties combining with the black of the CDU to resemble the flag of Jamaica.

The pro-business FDP are expected to take 10% of seats with the Greens one percentage point behind on nine.

Coalition talks are unlikely to begin in earnest until final results have been announced on Monday.

To form a government, the parties involved must have a combined total of at least 50% of the seats in parliament.

There are likely to be several coalition options, and plenty of disagreement between the parties before they reach a deal.

Parliament will reconvene on October 24 with the new government in place. </s> WASHINGTON (CNN) — Angela Merkel has won a fourth term as German Chancellor, but with her party’s lead in parliament cut and the country facing a surge in support for the far right.

Exit polls predicted the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would become the third-largest party in the national parliament, the Bundestag, as German voters delivered a stinging blow to the traditional parties.

Merkel’s CDU and its sister CSU had their share of the vote slashed. Germany’s oldest party, the SPD, which had been in a “grand coalition” with Merkel, was consigned to opposition.

Addressing her supporters, a subdued Merkel said the result gave her a “mandate” to govern but that the AfD’s success would require “thorough analysis” to understand the concerns of their voters.

SPD leader Martin Schulz said the result was a “bitter disappointment” and the party would return to opposition. He lamented the success of the AfD, adding that it was a watershed moment.

The exit polls showed Merkel’s CDU/CSU group would be the largest in the Bundestag, but with its lead cut to 33.5% of the seats. The SPD fell to 21%, a result met with shock at the party’s headquarters. AfD is predicted to become the first far-right party to win seats in the Bundestag since 1960, with about 13% of seats, according to FORSA polling institute data commissioned by German public broadcaster ZDF.

Addressing her supporters, Merkel pledged to try and understand the concerns of voters who lent their support to the AfD. “There’s a big new challenge for us, and that is the entry of the AfD in the Bundestag,” she said. “We want to win back AfD voters.”

Rise of AfD

 The success of the AfD was declared as a “political earthquake” by Georg Pazderski, the local party leader in Berlin.

Figures show 21.5% of East Germans, including Berlin, voted for the far-right party, while 11% voted for the AfD in the West, according to exit polls done by Infratest Dimap.

Founded in 2013, the AfD has enjoyed a surge of support for its anti-immigration stance and its opposition to Merkel’s decision to open the country’s borders to over a million migrants, mainly those fleeing violence and persecution from the Middle East.

The AfD, which has also been accused of Islamophobia, garnered staunch support in east Germany where it became the second largest party after the CDU.

“For the first time, we have a conservative party right beside our Christian Democrats and this is because they moved more and more to the left and we moved into the vacuum,” Pazderski told CNN

“It’s a good day for democracy for Germany and for Europe.”

Meanwhile, Alice Weidel, a leading AfD politician, told supporters she will keep her promise to call for a committee to investigate Merkel’s decision to allow more than a million refugees into the country in 2015.

She had repeatedly claimed that Merkel should be “punished” for her decisions during the refugee crisis.

“People have given us their trust and we will keep our promise,” she said.

‘Jamaica coalition’

 With the SPD refusing to rejoin a coalition and no party willing to work with the AfD, it leaves Merkel with few options for a coalition.

The exit polls would suggest that Merkel may be forced to make a deal with the Green Party and FDP, to create a so-called “Jamaican coalition” — with the green and and yellow of the two parties combining with the black of the CDU to resemble the flag of Jamaica.

The pro-business FDP are expected to take 10% of seats with the Greens one percentage point behind on nine.

Coalition talks are unlikely to begin in earnest until final results have been announced on Monday.

To form a government, the parties involved must have a combined total of at least 50% of the seats in parliament.

There are likely to be several coalition options, and plenty of disagreement between the parties before they reach a deal.

Parliament will reconvene on October 24 with the new government in place </s> • Angela Merkel is on track to secure a minority victory over her rivals
• The far-right, anti-immigrant AfD is posed to form the opposition
• Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz will likely form a ‘grand coalition’ The latest election polls from Germany show that Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) are in the strong lead ahead of Martin Schulz's Social Democrats (SPD). The polls also suggest that incumbent Chancellor will be forced to strike a coalition deal with the SPD, or a potential three-way alliance between the CDU/CSU, Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP). One party to look out for, is the controversial AdF which has grown in support in the run up to the election. Here are all the latest live updates, polls and campaign news as Germany elects its next government in the federal election. (All times BST)

Ron Nehring, a former US National Spokesman who is currently at the CDU headquarters in Germany, thinks that the German left will be extremely disappointed with the election results. He said in a tweet: “I get the sense the left in Germany is heading to a crushing defeat, extremely poor showing in today's election. First results in 20 mins.” 4.40pm: A 5 per cent AfD victory could be enough of a success for right-wing party Mathieu von Rohr, deputy head of the Der Spiegel Foreign desk, thinks that entering the Bundestag will be enough of a victory to cause and upset in Germany. He tweeted: “What should be seen as a success for AfD? Need 5% to enter Bundestag. Polls predict 10%+ which would be big. 15%+ would be an upset.”

4.30pm: Exit polls out in just 30 minutes The first round of exit polls are expected to be released in just 30 minutes. The final ballot count will not be out until 2am, but the exit polls are known to be extremely reliable in the German elections. By 5.30pm, a mix of exit polls and preliminary ballot counts should give a clearer picture of the results. FIND OUT HOW TO WATCH THE ELECTION RESULTS LIVE ONLINE 4.20pm: AfD could be in a position of power if it enters the Bundestag Melinda Crane, the chief political correspondent at DW, explained how the AfD ganging parliamentary seats would put it in a position of power. “One of the things we’re going to be watching is not only the percentage of seats, but also will the AfD then come in as a strong third party, because that means potentially if the two main parties – the SPD, the Social Democrats and the CDU and Angela Merkel’s Conservatives – were once again o govern in a grand coalition, the AfD would become the leader of the opposition. “That carries a number of perquisites, including for example the right for open debate in the Bundestag when it’s about the budget. “That is a powerful position and it will be a powerful platform for discourse that may trouble many German citizens. “As you know, we’ve seen the threshold on what is acceptable political discourse here in Germany.”

The are the latest opinion polls collected by Infratest dime: 4pm: Election turn out slips with one hour to go A Federal Returning Officer confirmed today that by 1pm, only 41.4 per cent of the electorate cast their election ballot. "It has perhaps never been as clear that the elections are about the future of democracy and Europe," the Officer wrote in newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "If you don't vote, others decide." More than 60 million Germans are eligible to vote in the federal elections. The largest group of voters is older and born in Germany to German parents, predominantly in the range of 70 and older – 20.7 per cent of the electorate according to theFederal Office of Statistics. About 10.4 per cent of the voters are estimated to have a “migrant background” and 51.5 per cent of German voters are women.

Christian Odendahl tweeted: “As elsewhere, I think this time around the relatively high turnout will benefit the populists in Germany.” The German Chancellor cast her ballot at a polling station in a school in Berlin's Mitte district. in a bod to secure her fourth term in office. Markus Putzel, an election volunteer at the Berlin polling station told CNN that the turnout is “quite high” there. It's a bit like the German Bundesliga," he said. "You know that Bayern Munich will always be the champion, but it is exciting to see who will come second." 3.30pm: Angela Merkel still in the lead with two hours to go A number of polls show that Mrs Merkel’s CDU/CSU is still in the lead for victory. A Pollytix election aggregator predicts that the Conservative’s will secure 36.1 per cent of the vote. based on the average of 21 different pollsters. The SPD are in second place with 22.2 per cent of the vote, and the AfD are looking to score 10.6 per cent of the vote.

2pm: Election turnout comparable to 2013 as Germans head to the polls The election turnout this year is at least two per cent higher than 2013, according to Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform. Mr Odendahl tweeted: “Turnout seems to be higher than 2013 in #BTW2017. Might benefit #AfD (former non-voters) rather than major parties (anti-AfD vote). “Turnout in Munich so far: 57% vs. 44% in 2013. “Lowest turnout in a German federal election was in 2009: 70.8%. Highest in 1972: 91.1%. “City of Koeln reports 2 percentage points higher turnout than in 2013, a 1 pm. CLICK HERE TO READ OUR PREVIOUS GERMAN ELECTION LIVE UPDATES </s> BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives beat their rivals on Sunday to win her a fourth term in an election that will also bring a far-right party into Germany's parliament for the first time in more than half a century, exit polls showed.

After shock election results last year, from Britain's vote to leave the European Union to the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, many look to Merkel to rally a bruised liberal Western order, tasking her with leading a post-Brexit Europe.

She must now form a coalition government - an arduous process that could take months as all potential partners are unsure whether they really want to share power with her.

Merkel's conservative bloc won 32.5 percent of the vote, making them the largest parliamentary group, an exit poll for broadcaster ARD indicated. However, that was down from 41.5 percent in the last election, in 2013.

Support for their closest rivals, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) which are currently junior partners in a so-called "grand coalition" with Merkel, slumped to 20.0 percent - a new post-war low. The SPD ruled out a re-run of that tie-up.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) stunned the establishment by finishing third and entering parliament for the first time with 13.5 percent of the vote.

Merkel, Europe's longest serving leader, joins the late Helmut Kohl, her mentor who reunified Germany, and Konrad Adenauer, who led Germany's rebirth after World War Two, as the only post-war chancellors to win four national elections.

SPD deputy leader Manuela Schwesig said her party would now go into opposition. That would rule out a re-run of Merkel's existing alliance with the SPD.

An alternative coalition for Merkel would be a three-way tie-up with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the ecologist Greens. That is a combination as yet untested at national level and known as the "Jamaica" option because the three parties' colors are those of the black-gold-green Jamaica national flag.

Both the FDP and the environmentalist Greens have played down the prospect of a Jamaica coalition, but as they have been out of government for four and 12 years respectively, they may be lured into an alliance by the prospect of power.

Whatever the make-up of her coalition, Merkel, 63, faces four years of government in a fragmented parliament after the return of the FDP - unrepresented at national level for the last four years - and the arrival of the AfD.

Founded in 2013 by an anti-euro group of academics, the AfD has morphed into an anti-immigration party that has profited from Merkel's 2015 decision to leave German borders open to over 1 million migrants, most of them fleeing war in the Middle East.

The party's entry into the national parliament heralds the beginning of a new era in German politics that will see more robust debate and a departure from the steady, consensus-based approach that has marked the post-war period.

The other parties elected to the Bundestag all refuse to work with the AfD, which says it will press for Merkel to be "severely punished" for opening the door to refugees and migrants.

After the AfD hurt her conservatives in regional elections last year, Merkel, a pastor's daughter who grew up in Communist East Germany, wondered if she should run for re-election.

But with the migrant issue under control this year, she threw herself into a punishing campaign schedule, presenting herself as an anchor of stability in an uncertain world. </s> Angela Merkel has won a fourth term as German Chancellor, but with her party’s lead in parliament cut and the country facing a surge in support for the far right.

Exit polls predicted the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would become the third-largest group in the national parliament, the Bundestag, as German voters delivered a stinging blow to the traditional parties.

Merkel’s center-right CDU and its sister CSU had their share of the vote slashed. Germany’s oldest party, the center-left SPD, which had been in a “grand coalition” with Merkel, was consigned to opposition.

Addressing her supporters, a subdued Merkel said the result gave her a “mandate” to govern but that the AfD’s success would require “thorough analysis” to understand the concerns of their voters.

SPD leader Martin Schulz said the result was a “bitter disappointment” and the party would return to opposition.

The exit polls showed Merkel’s CDU/CSU group would be the largest in the Bundestag, but with its lead cut to 33.5% of the seats, down from 41.5%. The SPD fell to 21% from 25.7%, a result met with shock at the party’s headquarters.

The AfD, founded only four years ago, became the first far-right party to enter the Bundestag since 1960, with a seat projection of 13%, according to FORSA polling institute data commissioned by German public broadcaster ZDF.

Addressing her supporters, Merkel pledged to try and understand the concerns of voters who lent their support to the AfD. “There’s a big new challenge for us, and that is the entry of the AfD in the Bundestag,” she said. “We want to win back AfD voters.”

Licking its wounds, the SPD decided against continuing in government. During the campaign, Schulz found it hard to mount an effective opposition to Merkel, as his party had been inextricably linked to her policy decisions. More symbolically, had the SPD remained in coalition, the AfD would have been the largest opposition party.

The AfD’s local party leader in Berlin, Georg Pazderski, declared its success a “political earthquake.”

Founded in 2013, the AfD rose to prominence on the back of an anti-immigration stance and its opposition to Merkel’s decision to open the country’s borders to over a million migrants, mainly those fleeing violence and persecution from the Middle East. The party’s opponents say it has stoked Islamophobia in Germany.

The AfD polled particularly strongly in East Germany, which includes Berlin, attracting 21.5% of the vote, according to exit polling conducted by by Infratest Dimap. In the West, it scored about 11%, the projections said. The results put the AfD on course to become the second largest party in the East, after the CDU.

“For the first time, we have a conservative party right beside our Christian Democrats and this is because they moved more and more to the left and we moved into the vacuum,” Pazderski told CNN.

“It’s a good day for democracy for Germany and for Europe.”

Alice Weidel, a leading AfD figure, told supporters she would keep her promise to call for a committee to investigate Merkel’s decision to allow more than a million refugees into the country in 2015.

She had repeatedly claimed that Merkel should be “punished” for her decisions during the refugee crisis. “People have given us their trust and we will keep our promise,” she said.

There were protests outside the party’s headquarters in Berlin after the provisional results came through on Sunday. Protesters chanted “Nazis out” and sang “say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here.”

The European Jewish Congress called on the major parties to shun the AfD in parliament. “We trust that centrist parties in the Bundestag will ensure that the AfD has no representation in the coming governing coalition,” Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the EJC, said.

“Some of the positions it has espoused during the election campaign display alarming levels of intolerance not seen in Germany for many decades and which are, of course, of great concerns to German and European Jews.”

With the SPD refusing to rejoin government and no party willing to work with the AfD, the result leaves Merkel with few options for a coalition.

Merkel may be forced to make a deal with the Green Party and FDP, to create a so-called “Jamaican coalition” — with the green and and yellow of the two parties combining with the black of the CDU to resemble the flag of Jamaica.

The pro-business FDP are expected to take 10% of seats with the Greens one percentage point behind on nine.

Coalition talks are unlikely to begin in earnest until final results have been announced on Monday.

To form a government, the parties involved must have a combined total of at least 50% of the seats in parliament. There are likely to be several coalition options, and plenty of disagreement between the parties before they reach a deal.

The Bundestag is due reconvene on October 24 with the new government in place. </s> Chancellor Angela Merkel is in position to rule for a fourth term, according to early exit polls in Germany's national election, which also saw voters send the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) to Germany's parliament, the Bundestag.

German media characterized the results of Sunday's vote as a major shift. Der Spiegel reports, AfD is the "first overtly right-wing party to win seats in the country's federal parliament in over half a century."

With around 33 percent of the vote, Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party came in first in Sunday's vote, but it was its worst showing since 1949.

"Of course we would have preferred a better result," Merkel said, according to The Associated Press. But she observed that her party has been in power for the past dozen years, the last four of which have been "extremely challenging."

The CDU is projected to hold 218 seats out of the Bundestag's 631 total.

Merkel's outgoing coalition partner, the Social Democrats, received just 20 percent of the vote, its worst showing ever. But it was enough for a second place result of 138 seats in parliament, according to early results.

"Today is a difficult and bitter day," said SPD leader Martin Schulz, who had hoped to take the chancellorship from Merkel. Schulz announced that he will not partner in another grand coalition and thathis party will go into opposition.

The so-called Jamaica coalition, which would see Merkel ruling together with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, is her likeliest path toward a majority in parliament. The coalition is so named because the parties' colors of green, yellow and black mirror the Jamaican flag.

The AfD came in third Sunday, with early results showing it received more than 13 percent of the vote. The xenophobic party ran on an anti-immigrant platform with an emphasis on closing Germany's borders to migrants. It had been fiercely opposed to Merkel's recent welcoming of large numbers of refugees.

In the runup to the election, NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports German voters were inundated with campaign posters, including ones from the anti-Muslim AfD party with the blunt slogan: "Burkas? We prefer bikinis."

AfD's co-leader Alexander Gauland vowed Sunday that the party would "change this country," promising to pursue Germany's established parties. "We will hunt Ms. Merkel. We will bring back our nation," Gauland said.

The AfD is expected to hold some 87 seats in parliament.

Merkel told supporters Sunday that "we want to win back AfD voters" by solving the country's problems and addressing their concerns, reports AP. She said Germany has to take the fears of its people seriously.

The final election results are expected early Monday, German time, but are not expected to deviate greatly from Sunday's projections. </s> German Chancellor, Angela Merkel’s has won the mandate to form Germany’s central government for a fourth consecutive term in office.

The polls showed that for the first time in more than 50 years, a far-right party will be represented in the German parliament.

Merkel’s conservative bloc – her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU) – won 32.5 percent of the vote, making them by far the largest parliamentary group, according to an exit poll for the broadcaster ARD.

However, the CSU’s vote was down by about 9.5 per cent compared with 41.5 percent in the 2013 election.

Their closest rivals, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), slumped to 20.0 percent – a new post-war low.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) stunned the establishment by finishing third and entering parliament for the first time with 13.5 percent.

Merkel, Europe’s longest-serving leader, joins the late Helmut Kohl, her mentor who reunified Germany, and Konrad Adenauer, who led Germany’s rebirth after World War Two, as the only post-war chancellors to win four national elections.

She must now form a coalition government – an arduous process that could take months as all potential partners are unsure whether they really want to share power with her.
Exit polls indicate Merkel has won a fourth term in power, and that Alternative for Germany will enter the Bundestag for the first time as the third largest party.