Over 60 million eligible voters in Germany will today cast their votes in the country's national election to elect a new leader, with Angela Merkel gunning for reelection. Merkel is currently seeking a fourth term in office and to keep her conservative CDU/CSU alliance's status as the largest presence in Germany's parliament.
According to BBC, more people had voted by midday in most regions, than by the same time in the federal elections four years ago.
The report stated that Merkel voted at a polling station in Berlin while the SPD's candidate for chancellor, Martin Schulz, voted earlier in the day in his home town Wuerselen in western Germany.
It added that Polling stations opened at 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) and will close at 18:00, with exit polls expected shortly after.
Meanwhile, uncertainty about what a new coalition government could look like is expected to draw high numbers of voters to the ballot boxes, with postal voting higher than usual this time.
The contenders are Angela Merkel, Martin Schulz and Alice Weidel.
