The final result of Germany's national election on Sept. 18 will be postponed by at least two weeks after the death of a candidate in one of the 299 electoral districts, news report quoted electoral official as saying Thursday.

Voters in the district in the eastern city of Dresden will have to wait until at least Oct. 2 to cast their ballots as local candidate for the anti-immigration National Democratic Party Kerstin Lorenz died, deputy head of the regional electoral commission in Saxony Caroline Schreck was reported as saying.

Lorenz, 46, died Wednesday after suffering a cerebral apoplexy on Monday during an election campaign event, according to a Dresden newspaper.

"The election in this district will occur at a later stage" as there is too little time to name a new candidate and change ballot papers, she said. No date for the new vote has been set so far.

Latest polls showed Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic Party's support has risen to 34 percent from 31 percent before Sunday's televised debate between him and opposition leader Angela Merkel.

The SPD/Greens coalition support reached 41 percent, depriving Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and preferred partner the Free Democrats of majority.

Source: Xinhua