Merkel eyes 2nd term as Germans vote

This combo of photos shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and German Foreign Minister and the Social Democrats Party (SPD) main candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier casting their votes in Berlin yesterday. Some 62 million Germans are eligible to vote in an election that will decide who governs Europe's most populous nation and biggest economy for the next four years. Photo: AFP

Germans voted in a national election yesterday with Angela Merkel favourite to win a second mandate to lead a country hit by the global recession and at odds over its military role in Afghanistan.
Final surveys indicated the conservative Merkel was a shoo-in for four more years as chancellor, as voters reward her for guiding Germany calmly through its worst downturn since World War II.
But she may not get the business friendly coalition partner she wants coming out of the election.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, leader of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) who have been in a "grand coalition" with Merkel for four years, has failed to dent the huge popularity of Forbes magazine's most powerful woman on the planet, but a late surge has left Merkel's coalition hopes on a knife-edge.
"I am always optimistic," she told the mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Security across Germany has been tight in the run-up to election day following a string of threats from Islamic militants, including al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, warning of attacks over Germany's presence in Afghanistan.
A close election result in 2005 forced Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) into a coalition with traditional rivals, the SPD.
Four years of loveless left-right government later, Merkel wants to ditch the SPD and replace it with the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), a party seeking small government and lower taxes.
Early in the campaign, both parties looked on course to attract enough votes to create a new coalition, but surveys last week suggested that the race had narrowed, with as many as a quarter of voters still undecided.