Angela Merkel to be sworn for a third term as German chancellor Tuesday Dec 17,2013

Angela Merkel is due to be sworn in Tuesday Dec 17,2013 for a third term as German chancellor, capping months of political uncertainty as she bartered with her rivals to help govern Germany.Angela's Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, and its ally, Christian Social Union, or CSU, held talks with the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, to reach an agreement

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Horst Seehofer (R) of the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Sigmar Gabriel of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) sign a preliminary agreement, which has still to be approved by the members of the SPD, in the Bundestag in Berlin on Nov. 27, 2013

With a whopping 504 of the 631 seats, Angela Merkel's conservatives and their new centre-left partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), hold a comfortable majority under their hard-fought 'grand coalition' deal

Eighty-six days after Angela Merkel(59) swept to victory in elections but failed to grab an outright majority, the Bundestag lower house of parliament will vote on handing her another four-year term.

The ballot is secret but the outcome likely holds little surprise.

Afterwards Angela Merkel must be confirmed by President Joachim Gauck at the presidential palace before returning to the Bundestag to be sworn in as Germany's only third post-war chancellor to win a third mandate.