German Chancellor and CDU Party leader Angela Merkel casts her vote at a polling station on Sunday in Berlin during general elections (AFP photo)

BERLIN — Germans voted on Sunday in a general election expected to hand Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term while the hard-right nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party was expected to make history by winning its first seats in parliament. 
• Angela Merkel is on track to secure a minority victory over her rivals
• The far-right, anti-immigrant AfD is posed to form the opposition
• Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz will likely form a ‘grand coalition’ The latest election polls from Germany show that Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) are in the strong lead ahead of Martin Schulz's Social Democrats (SPD). The party finished second, but leader Martin Schulz said its tremendously weak showing would require the Social Democrats “to be a strong opposition” going forward. The AfD, which has also been accused of Islamophobia, garnered staunch support in east Germany where it became the second largest party after the CDU. And since Germany’s two major parties hemorrhaged votes to the four smaller parties — both the CDU and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) gave their worst performances since World War II — Merkel will be the first chancellor forced to seek a three-party coalition in order to form a majority government, likely with the pro-business FDP and the Greens.
Voters in Germany go to the polls to elect members of the Bundestag. Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union is widely expected to win a fourth term in office.