Ex-IMF boss new president
2004-05-23 14:18
Berlin - Horst Koehler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund who has called for bolder economic reforms in Germany, was elected on Sunday as the country's ninth postwar president.
Koehler, nominated by opposition conservatives, defeated Gesine Schwan, a university professor backed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government who wanted to become Germany's first female head of state.
Koehler, a 61-year-old finance expert, won by 604 votes to 589 in the ballot by a special assembly of 1 204 lawmakers and state delegates in Berlin's Reichstag parliament building.
- AP