Newsboyphil Reporting from Kingston, Jamaica

After Sundays Political Stalemate in Germany no mandate could be secured for either Gerhard Schröder or his conservative contender, Angela Merkel. The result leaves Europe's biggest economy in a political limbo, Mrs. Merkel's Christian Democrats beat Mr. Schröder's Social Democrats with a margin too narrow for her to secure a governing majority and too narrow for Mr. Schröder to concede defeat. 

It's a result that has stunned commentators and pundits, many of whom had anticipated an historic victory of change in favour of Merkels Christian democrats.The results gave Mrs. Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union the highest vote total, at 35.2 percent. The Social Democratic Party received 34.3 percent of the vote, which means that it has lost the slender majority in Parliament.

The election has widely been seen as a crucial one in Germany, the powerhouse of Europe's economy, because it confronted the German public with some fundamental choices at a time of deep economic difficulty, no growth, high deficit and record unemployment. Both candidates were bold enough to claim victory, but Mr Schroder, as the sitting head of government, will likely have the first shot at the job.

From all likeliness commentators expect Ms Merkel to succeed in some way, perhaps through a coalition government that would see the main parties come to some sort of agreement. Merkel has been willing to discuss coalition possibilities with every party. Green Party chief Joschka Fischer has appeared less enthusiastic about a coalition. He said Sunday night that he has no problem discussing possibilities, he doesn't see a Jamaica coalition, named so for the three parties' colors black (CDU), green and yellow, as realistic.

The only other option Schroder has at staying in power is to form a government with the FDP and the Greens. This government is being described as the "traffic-light coalition" which refers to the three party's colors: SPD (red), FDP (yellow), Green.

For Ms Merkel and the democrats sake I hope their is a Jamaica Coalition.

PHIL