Germany is electing a new Bundestag today
Polling stations for early parliamentary elections are open from 8 am until 6 pm.
Berlin (dpa/d.de) - Around 59.2 million people in Germany are being called upon to elect a new Bundestagtoday (Sunday). Early elections had to be called when the previous coalition government collapsed. The previous government will remain in power until the new parliament has elected a chancellor. This is always the case in German elections, a tried and tested system that has been in place since 1953 - when the first Bundestag was elected in 1949 there had been no previous government. Following a reform, the new Bundestag will have 630 members - more than 100 fewer than the current parliament.
It is not compulsory to vote in Germany, so it is up to the 59.2 million eligible voters to decide whether to take advantage of their democratic right and cast their vote. Around 675,000 volunteers are on hand to ensure that voting takes places in an orderly fashion at the 65,000 or so polling stations across Germany, which are open from 8 am until 6 pm (local time).
As soon as the polling stations shut at 6 pm, the first unofficial forecasts will be made, with projections then released later. The provisional official election result will only be available several hours later, however. You will be able to find it on the website of the federal returning officer, here.