This archive report was first published on 26 September 2021.
On September 26, 2021, German voters started casting their ballots to elect a new Bundestag, the federal parliament, which will form a new government for the next four years.
According to the Federal Returning Officer, approximately 60.4 million citizens are eligible to vote. The election is significant as it marks the end of Angela Merkel's 16-year tenure as Chancellor, with around 40 percent of eligible voters casting their ballots by post, compared to 28.6 percent in the last election in 2017.
The competition is fierce, making it difficult to predict which party will garner the most seats in the Bundestag. The Social Democratic Party, led by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, is currently leading the polls by a narrow margin of 1 to 4 percentage points ahead of Merkel's Union Party, whose chancellor candidate is Armin Laschet.
