Germany elects Christian Wulff as new president

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's candidate Christian Wulff was elected Germany's president in a lacklustre victory.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative candidate Christian Wulff was elected as Germany's 10th post-war president on Wednesday in an embarrassingly lacklustre victory after rebels in the ruling coalition forced three rounds of voting before he won.

Wulff won 625 votes from a special parliamentary assembly. His main challenger, former East German human rights activist Joachim Gauck, secured 494 votes. Wulff succeeded Horst Koehler, who quit abruptly a month ago as the head of state.

Wulff, 51, is a heavyweight in Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and was once mentioned as a possible future chancellor. However, he ruled himself out of the job in 2008, saying he was not enough of an "alpha male".

Merkel had wanted his candidacy to reinforce her leadership but instead, the three-round vote dramatised the divisions in her coalition. Wulff is widely seen as a moderate conservative who is unlikely to rock the boat as president, a largely ceremonial post.

His calm, personable manner helped him to become one of Germany's most popular politicians.