Posted on 09/21/2002 11:05:05 PM PDT by HAL9000
Legislative: opening of the poll
Sunday September 22, 2002 - 6h00 GMT
BERLIN, 22 seven (AFP) - the poll of the quinzièmes legislative elections of the post-war period in Germany, the fourth since the reunification, opened at eight hours (06h00 GMT), the some 61,2 million voters having up to 18 hours (16h00 GMT) to elect their 598 deputies.
The half of the deputies is elected with the uninominal direct vote for all with a turn in 299 districts and other half with proportional to the list system in each of the 16 regional States (Laender) German. To obtain seats with proportional, a party must cross the bar of the five percent of the voices or remove three direct mandates in districts.
The first surveys at the exit of the polling stations will be made public with the poll closure, with 16h00 GMT, and the first estimates on stripped ballot papers are awaited for 16h20 GMT.
The head of the regional government of Bavaria, the Christian-Democrat Edmund Stoiber (CDU/CSU), must vote with 07h00 GMT at his place, in Wolfratshausen, close to Munich (southern), while the other principal candidate, the social democrat chancellor (SPD) outgoing Gerhard Schroeder, will deposit his bulletin in his polling station of Hanover (northern) towards 09h00 GMT.
According to the institutes of survey, it is about one of the tightest polls of the post-war period, the social democrat Gerhard Schroeder and his preserving rival Edmund Stoiber being with the elbow with elbow, with a light advantage with Mr. Schroeder, whose dimension of personal popularity exceeds that of its adversary by far.
Two topics dominated the election campaign, unemployment and a possible war against Iraq.
The participation should be raised, even if it could be falling, in particular in the east, legislative of 1998 when it had amounted to 82,2%.
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