CSU wins back majority in Bavaria election

Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) won a working majority in a legislative election Sunday in the Germa state, one week before Germany as a whole votes, dpa quoted TV exit polls as saying. The CSU, the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, was tipped to take about 49 per cent of the vote, bouncing back from a slump five years ago that forced it to take the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) as a coalition partner. The FDP, which is Merkel's coalition partner in Berlin, was forecast to take only 3 per cent of the vote, losing all its state assembly seats, both ARD and ZDF public television said. Germany bars representation to a party winning less than 5 per cent.