The polls opened on Sunday morning in the state as the regional party of Christian Social Union (CSU) is tipped to be the winner.

CSU is a sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats Union (CDU), which has seen a slip to 40-percent support, according to a recent national ARD television poll.

The poll published on September 13 also showed that the opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), received 28-percent support nationwide while the Greens remained at 10 percent and the left at 8 percent.

Analysts believe that CDU together with CSU are to secure 39 percent of the vote in next week’s federal elections, which would force Merkel to find a coalition partner.

Merkel’s current coalition ally, the Free Democrats is struggling to stay over the five-percent threshold needed to stay in the Bundestag, the country’s main federal legislative house.

If the Free Democrats fail, then the SPD could be asked to form a left-right “grand coalition” with CDU, the same alliance Merkel led under her first 2005-2009 term in office.

Another recent poll by Forsa market-research company showed the anti-euro Alternative for Germany (AfD), a newly formed party, received its highest rating of four percent, which is only one point below the threshold.

CAH/SS