Voting booths opened for Germany's general election at 8am (0600 GMT) on Sunday, amid expectations that Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats (CDU) would win a renewed mandate, ahead of Social Democrat (SPD) challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to the Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa. Merkel, whose CDU is expected to pick up the largest share of the vote, is hoping for enough support to enter a new centre-right coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP). In the final hours of the election campaign the major parties were trying to win over the undecided, as up to a third of those surveyed said they had not made up their mind.
