BERLIN, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - German President Horst
Koehler was reelected on Saturday by a special federal assembly
for the second five-year presidential term.
Koehler, a 66-year-old Christian Democrat, won an absolute
majority in the first round vote gaining 613 votes in a
1,223-seat assembly, while his main opponent Gesine Schwan from
the Social-Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) won 513 votes.
Schwan, a university professor, nearly won the post five
years ago, but lost out to Koehler, a former head of the
International Monetary Fund.
Koehler is backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian
Democratic Union, whose members expressed regret earlier that
the SPD will be challenging with its own candidate. The parties
share power in a left-right coalition.
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