Berlin, Sep 27: The center-left Social Democrats have won the biggest share of the vote in Germany's national election, beating outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Union bloc in a closely fought race.

Election officials said early Monday that a count of all 299 constituencies showed the Social Democrats won 25.9% of the vote, ahead of 24.1% for the Union bloc.

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The environmentalist Greens came third with 14.8% followed by the pro-business Free Democrats with 11.5%. The two parties have already signaled that they are willing to discuss forging a three-way alliance with either of their two bigger rivals to form a government.

The far-right Alternative for Germany came fourth in Sunday's vote with 10.3%, while the Left party took 4.9%.

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For the first time since 1949, the Danish minority party SSW was set to win a seat in parliament, officials said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)