German Election: Social Democrats beat Merkel's bloc

Berlin, Sep 27: In a close fight, Germany's Social Democrats have narrowly won Sunday's national election, projected results showed. The clear mandate lead Democrat government for the first time since 2005 and to end 16 years of conservative-led rule under Angela Merkel.

The center-left Social Democrats have won the biggest share of the vote in Germany's national election, beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Union bloc in a closely fought race.

A count of all 299 constituencies showed the Social Democrats won 25.9% of the vote, ahead of 24.1% for the Union bloc.

The environmentalist Greens came third with 14.8% followed by the pro-business Free Democrats with 11.5%.

The two parties have already signaled that they are willing to discuss forging a three-way alliance with either of their two bigger rivals to form a government.

The far-right Alternative for Germany came fourth in Sunday's vote with 10.3%, while the Left party took 4.9%. For the first time since 1949, the Danish minority party SSW was set to win a seat in parliament, officials said.