MUNICH German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is counting on a convincing win from his arch-conservative Bavarian allies in a state election on Sunday to give his flagging re-election bid an urgently needed lift. With only two weeks to go before federal elections, Europe's longest-serving leader has failed to make any inroads into the comfortable lead his Social Democrat challenger Gerhard Schroeder holds in voter surveys.

But Kohl is relying on the Christian Social Union, Bavarian Sister Party to his Christian Democrats, to hold their absolute majority in the conservative state to boost morale and win back wavering voters in the final fortnight of his campaign. Kohl is some five points behind Schroeder in voter surveys. Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber has ironically gained popularity in Germany's most prosperous state for battling against Kohl as one of the country's leading sceptics over Europe's single currency.

Kohl won the fight for the euro, but Stoiber won voters' hearts for his lonely crusade. Stoiber, who fancies himself as a successor to Kohl, is projected to win 50 percent on Sunday while surveys show Kohl will get 37 percent in general elections on September 27. The CSU, which has ruled Bavaria with an absolute majority since 1962 and has been part of every state government since 1946, won 52.8 percent in the last state election in 1994.

(Reuter)