BERLIN (AFP/Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a humiliating blow Wednesday after her candidate for German president failed to secure an absolute majority in a second round of voting in a special assembly.

Christian Wulff fell eight votes short of an absolute majority in an assembly of MPs and public figures even though Merkel's coalition had a majority on paper. In the first round he was 23 short, AFP reported.
Earlier Mr. Wulff failed to win an absolute majority in the first round of presidential election on Wednesday, forcing the vote into a second round.
Merkel desperately needed a clear victory in the federal assembly that elects the head of state to boost her authority after a series of poor showings in opinion polls and setbacks including the resignation of Horst Koehler as president in May, Reuters reported.
Her center-right coalition's candidate, Christian Wulff, went into the contest with an absolute majority on paper. But the center-left's candidate, popular civil rights activist and Protestant Pastor Joachim Gauck, has strong cross-party appeal.
The ruling coalition has 644 seats in the special assembly, well over the 623 needed for an absolute majority, but only 600 voted on the first ballot for Wulff, meaning that some on the government benches voted for the opposition candidate.
“It is more exciting than anyone expected. It looks like a lot of people wanted to send Merkel a message,” said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, parliamentary leader of the opposition center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Gauck scored 499 votes -- 39 more than the number of Social Democratic and Green assembly members -- and leftist Luc Jochimsen won 126 votes.
Photo: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Lower Saxony's State Premier and candidate for president of Germany's conservative CDU/CSU parties Christian Wulff walk beside each other after the second round of voting during the presidential election on June 30, 2010 at the Bundestag in Berlin. (Getty Images)
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