Polls open in German elections

Germany's almost 62 million registered voters are being called upon to cast their ballot in Sunday's election, which will decide whether Merkel's center-right coalition will stay in power.

According to Deutsche Welle, pre-election polls show the Chancellor's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 13 percent in front of her nearest rivals, the center-left opposition Social Democrats (SPD) under Peer Steinbrück. However, Merkel's current coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), have been lagging in the surveys, hovering at the 5 percent threshold for parliamentary representation.

If the CDU, its sister party the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) and the FDP fail to garner the necessary majority to rule, Merkel may be forced into a so-called grand coalition with the SPD, her traditional rivals, as was the case in her first term from 2005 to 2009. The FDP has not only fared badly in surveys, but was also forced to exit the regional assembly in last weekend's state election in Bavaria, achieving a meager 3.3 percent.

The SPD itself favors a coalition with the Greens, but the pro-environment party have not made a good showing in pre-elections surveys, which put them at just nine percent. In 2009, the Greens received 10.7 percent of the vote.

On Saturday, both Merkel and Steinbrück made last attempts to woo voters.

Merkel, 59, told 4,000 of her supporters in the capital, Berlin, that she wanted to continue leading Europe's biggist economy as "your chancellor for another four years."

Amid fresh fears that Germany will end up bearing the major burden in rescuing Greece from its debt woes, she spoke at length about the importance of Europe for Germany.

Germany "can only do well in the long term if all of Europe does well," she said.

"This is why the stabilization of the euro is not just a good thing for Europe but it is also in Germany's fundamental interest," she added.

Visiting Frankfurt on his last campaign day, Steinbrück, 66, told listeners they had the chance to "get rid of the most backward-looking, least capable, most loud-mouthed German government since reunification."

He also answered questions on his calls for a standard minimum wage and his accusations that Germany has seen a widening gap between rich and poor under Merkel. Merkel opposes an across-the-board minimum wage, instead favoring flexible pay agreements negotiated between employers and unions in each respective region and sector.

Steinbrück, who was finance minister in Merkel's 2005-2009 coalition, has had a somewhat gaffe-prone campaign, most lately causing a stir with a picture of him showing a middle finger in reply to a question on his problem-ridden candidacy.

Polls will close at 1600 UTC, and initial television estimates based on exit polls are expected shortly afterwards.