Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats have gained electoral support at the expense of the conservative CDU/CSU opposition led by Angela Merkel just nine days ahead of elections, according to a fresh opinion poll published Friday, dpa reported. The poll by public broadcaster ZDF gave the CDU/CSU 41 per cent of the vote, down 2 percentage points, and their potential coalition partners, the liberal FDP, 7 per cent, yielding a total of 48 per cent. Schroeder's SDP received 34 per cent, up 2 points, while their coalition partner, the Greens, came in at 7 per cent, yielding 41 per cent together. Support for the Left Party came in at 8 per cent. Even though polling Sunday is little more than a week away, 22 per cent of the electorate remain undecided, the poll found. Some 35 per cent backed a grand coalition of the CDU/CSU with the SDP, while 31 per cent were in favour of a CDU/CSU coalition with the FDP. Only 17 per cent were in favour of the SDP-Green coalition continuing in power. --more 1518 Local Time 1218 GMT
