MAGDEBURG, Germany, Sept 6, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Polls opened at 8:00 am local time (0600 GMT) on Sunday in Saxony-Anhalt, in east Germany, for a regional vote in which the far-right AfD is the clear frontrunner and could win its first state government.

More than 1.7 million voters have until 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) to elect state lawmakers in a vote seen as a key test for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's increasingly unpopular federal coalition.