AMN/ WEB DESK
Voters are heading to polling stations today to determine Germany’s next government and the Chancellor. About 60.4 million people in the nation of 83 million are eligible to elect 20th Bundestag, or lower house of Parliament, which will elect the next head of government. This is the first election since the county reunified in 1990 that Angela Merkel is not running in as a candidate.
Merkel has been in power since 2005 but plans to step down after the election. After 16 years in the chancellery, the woman who became the defining European leader of her era will step aside once a new government is formed.
The newly elected parliament must hold its inaugural session no later than 30 days after the election, on October 26.