BERLIN, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - German President Horst Koehler was reelected on Saturday by a special federal assembly for the second five-year presidential term.
Koehler, a 66-year-old Christian Democrat, won an absolute majority in the first round vote gaining 613 votes in a 1,223-seat assembly, while his main opponent Gesine Schwan from the Social-Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) won 513 votes.
Schwan, a university professor, nearly won the post five years ago, but lost out to Koehler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund.
Koehler is backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, whose members expressed regret earlier that the SPD will be challenging with its own candidate. The parties share power in a left-right coalition.
