Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel Looks set to return to parliament for a third term.

However, exit polls conducted by German public TV indicate that Merkel's previous junior coalition partners the Free Democrats have failed to get back into the Bundestag.

Merkel's conservatives are estimated to have at least 42 percent, the Social Democrats about 26 percent, but the Free Democrats just below the five percent needed.

Angela Merkel and her Christian Democrats party may now be forced to govern in a "grand coalition" with the centre-left Social Democrats.