Germany's western state of North Rhine-Westphalia held elections on Sunday, which are seen as the last public barometer for the upcoming federal elections.

About 13.2 million eligible voters in the most populous state went to polls to choose from more than 1,300 candidates from 31 parties.

Sunday's vote is the last state election before the federal elections set for Sept. 24, and is seen as a vital pre-duel between Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Martin Schulz's Social Democratic Party (SPD).

The industrial state has been governed by a center-left coalition of the SPD and the Greens since 2010, with Social Democrat Hannelore Kraft serving as state governor.

In the past several months, some opinion polls have shown that Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, will have an edge over Merkel in the coming federal elections. However, Schulz's SPD has lost two state elections to Merkel's CDU in a row, in Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein, dimming the halo of Schulz. Endi

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