Olumide Lawal
Germany ex-Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has been declared winner of the presidential election on Sunday; the nation’s 12th president since World War II.
The 61-year-old former foreign minister was said to have been backed in his bid for the largely ceremonial post by the country’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.
The voting took place in a secret ballot among the 1,260-member Federal Convention, comprising lawmakers and leading community figures.
He secured 931 votes of the 1,239 votes cast in a secret ballot for the largely ceremonial post of president at a meeting of the Federal Convention.
Steinmeier would next month replace Joachim Gauck, a 77-year-old former East German pastor and human rights activist, who steps down next month as head of state at the end of his five-year term.
Regularly voted in opinion polls as the nation’s most popular politician, Steinmeier faced four other candidates in the election for the post.
In his acceptance speech, Steinmeier described the state of the nation as a turbulent time when people were uncertain.
“But he said that Germans should take a sense of pride from their nation having become “an anchor of hope for many in the world.”
