Germany was to learn the name of its next president yesterday in a two-way battle between a former international finance chief and an academic hoping to become the country's first female head of state.
If the 1,205 members of a special federal assembly vote according to party lines, the successful candidate will be Horst Koehler, a conservative who led the International Monetary Fund until a few months ago.
Standing against him is Gesine Schwan, the choice of the ruling center-left coalition but with little chance of overturning the opposition conservatives' inbuilt majority on the assembly.
Koehler said Saturday that he was "excited but confident." Schwan told her supporters, including Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that there was everything still to play for.
The vote was taking place at the Reichstag, the seat of parliament, and was to be screened live on television. The winner will take office on June 30.
Although the trappings of head of state are largely ceremonial, the post is prestigious. The president of 82 million Germans meets world leaders, travels the globe representing the country and enjoys a stately residence in the heart of Berlin.
Politically he has virtually no power, although the incumbent is seen as a kind of moral arbiter.
Certainly that was the role outgoing President Johannes Rau fulfilled, his latest comments in a radio interview Saturday reminding Germans that they have no reason to grumble despite their economic woes.
The Christian Union alliance and their liberal FDP allies have an absolute majority on the assembly, and the result may be known after just one round of voting.
The build-up to the vote was marred by a fuss over one of the conservative delegates, a 90-year-old former military judge, Hans Filbinger, who is accused of helping hand out death penalties in the last year of World War II.
Schroeder's Social Democrats all but called for his resignation, while the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center said his participation "would be a stain on Germany's democratic record."
But the Christian Union stuck firm, pointing out that he had taken part in six previous federal assemblies without any row.
As for the candidates, they were virtually unknown before their nominations and have had to introduce themselves to the general public.
Koehler, who has worked all his life in national and international finance, is 61, married with two children, and was born in Skierbieszow, Poland, which at the time was under German rule.
In his campaign, he irked some conservatives by branding the US as "arrogant" over Iraq and by supporting tough economic policies.
Schwan, who celebrated her 61st birthday on Saturday, runs the elite Viadrina European University on Germany's border with Poland.
A mother of two, she has pressed Polish-German reconciliation and European relations as well as the key Franco-German axis.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS