Germany kicks off key state election in Bavaria

germany

MUNICH- Germany’s southern state of Bavaria started voting on Sunday to shuffle the local parliament Landtag. About 9.5 million eligible voters are called in 91 voting districts to elect their representatives in the new state parliament, among them 600,000 are first-time voters, according to local statistics office.

Preliminary results will be disclosed at 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT). The Christian Social Union (CSU), which has long governed the economic-strong state after the post-war period, is polled to suffer a serious setback losing its majority. The latest survey showed the conservative party will get 34 percent of the votes, a historic low and a sharp decline from the 47.7 percent it got in 2013.

CSU’s losses will likely give way to the ecologist, pro-immigration Greens, with a supporting rate of 19 percent, and the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is forecast to win roughly 10 percent of the votes, according to the poll made by Infratest Dimap. The regional party Free Voters is projected to get 10 percent of the votes.(Xinhua)…[+]