AGL 40.14 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.35%)
AIRLINK 127.50 Increased By ▲ 0.46 (0.36%)
BOP 6.70 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.45%)
CNERGY 4.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.67%)
DCL 8.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.29%)
DFML 41.95 Increased By ▲ 0.51 (1.23%)
DGKC 86.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.06%)
FCCL 32.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.23 (-0.71%)
FFBL 64.88 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.12%)
FFL 10.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.98%)
HUBC 109.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-0.25%)
HUMNL 14.70 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.14%)
KEL 5.12 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.39%)
KOSM 7.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-3.49%)
MLCF 41.41 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.07%)
NBP 59.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.66 (-1.09%)
OGDC 194.99 Increased By ▲ 4.89 (2.57%)
PAEL 28.22 Increased By ▲ 0.39 (1.4%)
PIBTL 7.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.02%)
PPL 151.25 Increased By ▲ 1.19 (0.79%)
PRL 26.55 Decreased By ▼ -0.33 (-1.23%)
PTC 16.10 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.19%)
SEARL 78.11 Decreased By ▼ -7.89 (-9.17%)
TELE 7.46 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-3.24%)
TOMCL 35.42 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.03%)
TPLP 8.15 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.37%)
TREET 16.09 Decreased By ▼ -0.32 (-1.95%)
TRG 52.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-0.92%)
UNITY 26.63 Increased By ▲ 0.47 (1.8%)
WTL 1.26 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,934 Increased By 50.6 (0.51%)
BR30 30,915 Increased By 315.4 (1.03%)
KSE100 93,807 Increased By 451.4 (0.48%)
KSE30 29,053 Increased By 122.4 (0.42%)

Germany's rival politicians made their final pleas for votes on Saturday, the last day of campaigning for a tense election that is forecast to hand Chancellor Angela Merkel a second term in office. Merkel, 55, has won plaudits at home and abroad for her steady and calm leadership through the crisis that has hit Europe's top economy harder than most, and surveys indicate Germans are in no mood for change at the top.
But her centre-right party's lead over the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) has shrunk recently and tension is rising as her hopes of governing with her preferred partners - the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) - hang by a thread. If Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the FDP do not secure a majority, the most likely outcome is a continuation of the "grand coalition" between the CDU and the SPD that has governed Germany uneasily for the past four years.
The SPD candidate, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 53, judged to be a weak campaigner at first, has gained in confidence and issued a rousing clarion call to some 10,000 supporters late Friday at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. "The Union is getting more nervous by the day," Steinmeier told his enthusiastic, flag-waving audience, referring to Merkel's conservatives.
"The big lead they had has melted like ice in the sunshine. We will keep fighting for every vote until the last second on Sunday at 6:00 pm," when polling stations close. For her part, Merkel was poised to give her final speech of the campaign at a rally in Berlin around 1000 GMT. Speaking in the US city of Pittsburgh, where she attended a summit of G20 leaders, she urged German voters to ditch the grand coalition.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009

Comments

Comments are closed.