KIEL, Germany, Oct 2 (AFP) - Germany's Greens party, the junior partner in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder government, elected on Saturday Claudia Roth as co-president of the party.
The charismatic 49-year-old who currently serves as Germany's human rights commissioner, had previously served as one of the party's leader.
Roth was forced step down in 2002 when elected to parliament, but the party changed its rules last year enabling her to stand and win the post Saturday with nearly 78 percent of the vote.
Roth takes over from Angelika Beer, who was elected to the European Parliament, and serves with Reinhard Buetikofer, 51, who was reelected Saturday.
At their two-day annual meeting which ends Sunday the party was expected to chart its course toward the next federal elections after having successfully navigating its way through public anger at Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's reform programme.
Opinion polls give this most pragmatic of ecologist parties 13 percent of the vote, more than four percentage points higher than their best-ever score nationwide at the last legislative elections in September 2002.