February 25, 2008	Monday	Safar 17, 1429

HAMBURG, Feb 24: Germans voted on Sunday in elections in Hamburg seen as a key test of whether Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives can stem a swing to the political left ahead of next year’s national ballot.

The Christian Democrats (CDU) looked set to lose sole control of the wealthy northern city-state, a month after suffering severe losses in a state poll in Hesse over their hardline campaign on crime and immigration.

Opinion polls predicted the CDU would take up to 42 per cent of the vote, putting them well ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD) with 34 per cent, but short of a majority in Hamburg’s 121-seat regional legislature.

The CDU is expected to cede votes not only to the SPD, but to two other parties to the left — the environmentalist Greens and a group called The Left tipped to take 6.9 per cent of votes.

That score would see The Left, the political heirs of the East German communist party, take up seats in the Hamburg parliament after gaining entry to three other western German legislatures in the past year.—AFP