Final polls give Merkel slim lead over rivals

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks on track to win a second term and has a good chance of forming the center-right coalition that eluded her four years ago, the last polls released before Sunday's election indicated.

A survey by Forsa for Stern magazine, probably the last to be published before the vote, gave Merkel's conservatives a nine-point lead over their main rivals, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), virtually ensuring she will win a new four-year term.

It also mirrored most of the other polls released over the past few days in giving Merkel's conservatives and their preferred coalition partners, the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), a narrow parliamentary majority.