Germany's far — right AfD leads race in north — east state, exit poll shows

BERLIN, Sept 20 (Reuters) — Germany's AfD was projected to win the most votes in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Sunday, exit polls showed, but the far-right party is unlikely to govern as other parties rule out working with it. The exit poll, conducted for public broadcaster ARD, showed the AfD at 37.0% and the governing centre-right Social Democrats at 35.5%. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU slumped to 5.5% of the vote, its worst result in any state election since 1949. With the threshold set at 5%, it remained unclear whether the party would secure seats in the state parliament. (Reporting by Rachel More and James Mackenzie) ((rachel.more@thomsonreuters.com;)