Exit poll results announced in German elections

GERMANY’s governing Social Democrats avoided major losses in local elections yesterday in the country’s most populous state, while the conservative opposition lost votes but stayed well ahead in a traditional stronghold for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s party, exit polls indicated.

In the last electoral test of a year that has brought Schroeder’s party a string of reversals, the Social Democrats polled 33% in voting for local councils across North Rhine-Westphalia.